


Peverell's Children II

by Zakaira



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anal Sex, Blow Job, Hand Job, M/M, Mpreg, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:24:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 65
Words: 232,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zakaira/pseuds/Zakaira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU from the bathroom scene in HBP. Harry and Draco struggle to get through the war, while hiding their secret marriage and the fact that Draco is pregnant with Harry’s twins. Focuses on the birth of the twins through the first year after the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

            While Harry was at the Dursley’s trying to convince them to go into hiding, Draco was in France, safely tucked away under a fidelius charm at his family’s villa. There was no lilac forest with passion fruit vines or guava trees, but there were plenty of grape vines and sunshine. There was even a little stream that ran through the back of the property, which Draco had played in many times as a child, but was currently further than he could walk.

            Draco was only four months pregnant and his stomach had only a small bump. He was sure it was bigger than the average pregnancy bump for this early stage, but he was carrying twins, after all, so his bump should be bigger. But even then, the lump wasn’t all _that_ big and it certainly didn’t explain why he was so tired all the time. Mother and Professor Snape said it was to be expected with a Peverell pregnancy; especially with twins and that he shouldn’t overdo it. He stayed inside or went on walks through the first row of grape vines, but never any further out; never to the stream in the back and rarely to the vegetable garden on the side of the house.

            Earlier Professor Snape had stopped by, which was about as much excitement as Draco ever got. Besides the occasional visits from Professor Snape, there was just Mother, Grandmother Druella, and the house elves to keep him company. He had lied to Harry, through their charmed coins, about Professor Snape not having the secret to the villa, but he knew Professor Snape was on his side and Harry couldn’t know that. The professor had a job to do and he couldn’t do it if anyone thought he was still a spy. So Draco had lied, but he didn’t feel bad about it, because he needed Snape.

            Given the arrangement between Snape and Dumbledore, it was obvious that the situation could not remain as it was. Snape was destined to kill Dumbledore and immerse himself in his role as a spy for the Order, while Harry couldn’t be allowed to know what was really going on. Harry’s ignorance was critical to the plan and Harry would never allow Draco to be in continued contact with Snape after Dumbledore’s death, so he was forced to choose between Harry and Snape. Draco had chosen Snape.

            Professor Snape was Draco’s physician after all, while Harry would be busy saving the world. At the very least Snape was needed to deliver the twins, although the professor came by more regularly than necessary. Snape checked on Draco and the pregnancy once a week and at the same time, delivered much sought after news. Mother could cast the diagnostic spells herself if Professor Snape couldn’t make it, but Mother couldn’t deliver news or be their link to the outside world. That was the primary reason Snape came by so often.

            The diagnostic spells normally gave very good results, indicative of a very healthy baby. But there were two babies and twice now, the second time being today, the diagnostic spells revealed only mediocre results. The baby was alive and certainly surviving, but below average in weight. But then Professor Snape recast the spells and got the usual good results. The conclusion was, since there were two babies, that one baby was bigger and healthier than the other. They would have to watch the results closely and try to get two readings each time, but there was really nothing for it, except for Draco to eat healthy and get plenty of rest.

            Rest was something Draco did a lot of these days. He took long afternoon naps, went to bed early, and woke up late. He was tired now, because it was almost naptime, but he had a letter to write, so he was sitting out on the patio table with his parchment, quill, and ink bottle, writing. Every few words he’d pause and look up at the view of rolling hills covered in row after row of grape vines, while he would try to decide which words to use next. This was a very important letter after all, because it was to his father.

            Professor Snape had delivered news that very morning. Lucius Malfoy and several other Death Eaters had walked out of Azkaban with the permission of the dementors, a corrupt Ministry official, and a pair of Aurors that were in the Dark Lord’s pocket. Draco’s father was free and that meant he had to get a message to Father, letting him know that the Malfoy’s had switched sides, but the message had to be cryptic. It couldn’t give away too much, in case the letter fell into the wrong hands or in the event that Father decided not to change sides.

            Narcissa, Druella, and Draco were all convinced that Lucius would change sides immediately once Lucius knew what was going on, but there was no point in coming out with all the details at once. This letter certainly shouldn’t reveal that Draco was married to Harry, that Harry had changed his last name to Malfoy, or that Draco was pregnant with twins, by Harry. Lucius would know in time, but that was too much to write in this first letter. This letter had to be short and simple and give only the barest amount of information.

            The letter read, “I remember when my Grandfather Abraxas and I would walk together in the vineyard surrounded by row after row of grapes. Grandfather Abraxas would show me how to tend the vines and he would tell me about the life lessons he had learned, such as when it was time to cut your losses. I miss my grandfather and I have missed you too, Father. I hope to see you soon, your loving son, Draco Malfoy.”

            Draco had written that an hour ago, just after lunch. Then he had performed the secrecy charm he and Father always used to code their messages. The parchment blanched and blanked itself and now he was attempting to write the real letter. The first letter had its clues that would be visible to any Death Eater, Order member, or Auror who might intercept it, but this second one only Father would know how to decode. This one was for Father’s eyes only.

            So far Draco only had a few sentences written even though he had been thinking about it for a half hour. The parchment read, “I am safe with Grandmother Druella and Mother in hiding under a fidelius charm. I am still unable to fight after an injury I sustained this year at Hogwarts.”

            After writing that Draco had gotten distracted by the burning in his Dark Mark. The mark had been dormant all during his sixth year at Hogwarts and hadn’t so much as twinged since he stepped on the Hogwarts expressed last September; it had to be dormant in order to keep his cover while he was on assignment from the Dark Lord. But after Dumbledore’s death, Draco was supposed to report back to the Dark Lord. Professor Snape had reported back, but Draco had gone into hiding. Thus the Dark Lord had summoned Draco with the mark, turning it from a pale, almost non-existent outline that he had easily hidden from Harry behind a glamour, to the jet black image of a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull. The mark burned all the time now, indicating that the Dark Lord was still attempting to call Draco to His service. But it was only an unpleasant burning sensation and Draco wouldn’t go. Instead he would call back his father from the Dark Lord’s service and cost Him a loyal follower.

            Draco, turning away from his arm and back to his parchment, thought very carefully about what to write. He added, “The Malfoy family has decided to switch sides.”

            Draco thought some more, before adding, “I suggest you go into hiding and lie low.” Then he looked up and stared at the beautiful hillsides, before deciding to end it with, “We’ll be in touch.”

            Another half an hour passed as Draco went over everything he had written, twice, and made sure that he hadn’t said too much. From the non-coded message, Father would be able to figure out that they were in France at the Malfoy villa where Grandfather Abraxas had gone to retire. Father would also know that Draco felt it was time to cut their losses and disassociate with the Dark Lord. Father would make his way to France and find a place to lie low near the villa, but thanks to the fidelius charm, Father wouldn’t be able to find it; instead Father would wait for further contact. A second letter would be sent when Father had made his excuses to the Dark Lord and thrown off all Death Eater contacts. But for now, this was it and Draco was exhausted.

            Narcissa brought Draco out a glass of grape juice and a small plate of cheese slices. “You look knackered dragon; you can finish this letter after your lie down,” she said.

            It was grape juice, grapes, tomatoes, milk, yogurt, and cheese slices every day now that they were at the villa. They had no pumpkin juice, so the elves were mixing the morning sickness remedy in with the drinks they had plenty of, which were milk and grape juice. There was a small dairy farm on the other side of the villa and a small garden on this side, in addition to the vineyard. The house elves tended it all, which meant they had all the diary, tomatoes, and grape products they could want.

            Draco took a sip of his grape juice and replied to his mother, “I’ve finished it. Here, have a look, Mother.” He pushed the parchment over to her and began to eat his cheese.

            Narcissa took the parchment and read it, while Draco continued to eat and drink. Draco was popping the last slice of cheese into his mouth when Narcissa replied, “It’s good Draco, but do you think it’s wise to include such blatant hints in the non-coded portion? Anyone could read this and know that we’re at our villa in France and are traders.”

            “I think it will be obvious to the Dark Lord where we have gone soon enough. As for cutting our losses; that could refer to anything,” Draco replied, before taking another gulp of his juice.

            “No, I think it clearly indicates that we have switched sides. You should change it to something else.”

            “Like what?”

            “Like that family comes first or that when injured, one should take the time to nurse one’s wounds, before jumping back into the fight. Your Grandfather Abraxas said both of those things to me.”

            “Yeah, that could work. I’ll change it after dinner,” Draco said, finishing the juice.

            Narcissa left the parchment out on the table and walked Draco into the villa. He could manage on his own, but he was growing weaker as the pregnancy progressed and the stairs were becoming harder on him, so she wanted to walk with him, just in case. A house elf was already putting the lid back on the ink and cleaning up.

            Draco made his way upstairs to his new bedroom and lay down for his nap. It was a large room with an en suite bathroom and was adjacent to the nursery. His mother and grandmother were still working on decorating the nursery and setting up all the baby things, but he wasn’t quite halfway through his pregnancy, so they had time.

            When Draco woke up, he had dinner with his mother and grandmother and then started rewriting his letter to his father.

 


	2. Chapter2

            Not long after Harry’s birthday and the debacle at Bill and Fleur’s wedding reception, Severus Snape got word from the Dark Lord that no one had seen hide nor hair from Lucius Malfoy in weeks. The last report of Lucius’ whereabouts had him with a group of Death Eaters near Malfoy Manor. Lucius had claimed he was just going to pop into the Manor to make sure everything was ready for the Dark Lord to move in and then Lucius would rejoin the Death Eaters for a muggle raid.

            Lucius never showed and Malfoy Manor was deserted and not by any means ready for anyone to move in. The house had been stripped of everything, including furniture, but the Dark Lord just ordered his followers to furnish the place and then moved in without the Malfoys. The Manor was now the Dark Lord’s primary base of operations, but Lucius was still gone. The Dark Lord was livid at the desertion, for it was without a doubt desertion at this point; if Lucius had been captured, the other side would be boasting about it. Or if a setback had come up, Lucius would’ve reported back. Neither had happen, ergo Lucius was a deserter.

            The Dark Lord had just issued orders to his assembled Death Eaters that Lucius was to be killed on sight.

            “My Lord, if I may speak?” Severus asked.

            “You may Severus,” Voldemort replied in his cold, high voice.

            “Last time I saw him, the Malfoy scion was still in very poor shape from a sectumsempra Potter hit him with. I think it is possible that Lucius found his son and is busy tending to his dying only child and has thus forgotten about his other responsibilities. Perhaps we ought to bring him in for questioning, before he is to be executed?” Severus asked. “Perhaps compassion is called for when faced with losing one’s only heir.” He knew the Dark Lord would not be swayed by compassion, but His followers would sympathize with what is viewed as the ultimate loss among purebloods.

            “You still believe the youngest Malfoy to be dying then?”

            “Yes, my Lord. I mended the wounds multiple times, but the mends would not hold and would deteriorate.”

            “And the other Malfoys?”

            “Druella is an old woman and her presence was a hindrance on our dear Bellatrix’s time. Narcissa is weak; she is no fighter. I highly doubt any of them have turned against our cause or will be in any way opposition to us. They simply are not in a position to contribute bodily strength right now, although Lucius has left you this house for our meetings; is that not enough? Do we not need ordinary witches and wizards on our side, lending us support, my Lord?” Severus asked.

            “Very well spoken Severus. You are correct; Lucius did leave us his home and use of the galleons in his vault; we can grant him a temporary leave to deal with his family matters. Do not kill him on sight, but bring him in for questioning if found,” Lord Voldemort announced.

            When Severus was given his assignment, he left Malfoy Manor and went to the Malfoy’s villa in France to deliver the good news. After a short meeting it was agreed that it was time for another communication with Lucius. Narcissa set to writing the next coded letter and Severus went up to Draco’s room to check on his charge.

            Draco was doing increasingly worse; sleeping all hours of the day and waking up only to eat and drink and then falling back to sleep again. Most days now he didn’t even bother leaving the bedroom and he certainly never had the energy to make it down the stairs. Severus didn’t have the proper medical background to predict this result of the separation between Harry and Draco. Since then he had pulled out his medical reference for a brush-up on male pregnancy and then began searching for other medical books on male pregnancy, to look for the cause of the problem.

            Severus found several cases of Peverell pregnancies where the birth father was inordinately exhausted. The books all cited situations where the other father had left and therefore was not available to transfer magic to the birth father on a regular basis. In those cases the birth father was unusually exhausted and always tired, but not nearly as bad off as Draco. But then Draco was carrying twins, which increased the magical load, and Severus couldn’t find any documentation on cases with twins where the other father had left. He could only assume that the increased severity of the symptoms was due to the extra baby and hope that the medical references were correct in their assertions that the energy drain was never life threatening. And to think, they hadn’t even realized magic transfer occurred during male pregnancies, much less how important it was; critical, really.

            Draco woke up when Severus was halfway through his diagnostic spells and since Draco needed to eat as much as possible, Severus handed Draco the bunch of grapes from the bedside table. Severus went back to work casting his spells while Draco ate. One baby, the baby in the front, was bigger and healthier than the other. It always took a bit of work, but if Severus aimed just right, he could get the spells to penetrate from the right side of Draco’s body, where the smaller twin was located. While the first twin was thriving, this second one was only surviving, so he always made sure to get a reading on the little one to make sure all was still well.

            “Still healthy. How are you doing today, Draco?” Severus asked.

            “Tired,” Draco replied and popped another grape into his mouth.

            “Hang in there. I have word from the Dark Lord that he cannot locate your father. Your mother is sending the next letter to him.”

            “Great,” Draco said and continued eating. He was so tired these days that he rarely had much to contribute to conversations. One of the babies elbowed him, but he was used to the discomfort by now and didn’t pause in his consumption of his grapes to acknowledge the movement.

            Severus sat with Draco until Draco finished eating and then vanished the debris from the grapes and handed over a glass of milk. Draco’s nausea had decreased, but they were still mixing the anti-nausea tea in with Draco’s milk, just in case. Draco was thinner than Severus would’ve like for this far along, so they were making every effort to get as much food in the young man as possible and prevent any vomiting attacks.

            Draco handed the empty glass back to his old professor and closed his eyes, tired already. But this was the most exciting part of his week, because Professor Snape was here, so he forced his eyes back open and asked, “How was He? Was He mad about Father?”

            “Yes, but I talked him down. I explained that you were likely dying and your father needed to be with his family right now. Lucius left the Dark Lord galleons and the use of the Manor and I was able to convince Him that that was enough.”

            “Good.” It took Draco a minute to gather his thoughts, but then he added, “How are the babies? Is the little one any bigger?”

            “They are both well. The little one has grown a bit and that’s encouraging.”

            “Great,” Draco answered sleepily. He suddenly felt his coin with the Protean charm burning in his pocket. His Dark Mark had been burning off and on since Dumbledore’s death, but his coin had lain dormant up until recently. He pulled the coin out of his pocket and read it.

            “What is that, Draco?” Severus asked.

            “A message from Harry; says he loves me,” Draco replied handing the coin over to Professor Snape.

            “I’ll just put it in your nightstand for you,” Severus said, placing the charmed galleon in the top drawer of Draco’s nightstand, where he knew for a fact Draco kept other mementoes of Harry.

            “Tell me about what’s happening on the outside. Has anyone heard from Harry?” Draco asked.

            “Mr. Potter was believed to be at the Weasley’s for the wedding of their oldest son, but when Death Eaters broke up the party, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Ronald Weasley were all nowhere to be found. The portrait of Professor Phineas Nigellus Black assures me that he has heard the ruckus noise of three annoying teenagers inhabiting the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and the portrait of Walburga Black told him that there have been mudbloods, halfbloods, and blood traitors in her house again.”

            “So he’s safe, yeah?”

            “He is safe. The Dark Lord has infiltrated more of the ministry and has moved his headquarters to your house. He has once again inhabited the guesthouse and uses the first floor to conduct his meetings and various businesses. And he has ordered me to return to Hogwarts as headmaster.”

            “That’s brilliant. You’ll make the best headmaster; I almost wish I could go to Hogwarts this year just so I could see it.”

            “Thank you, Draco.”

            Severus told Draco of his various plans for taking over the school, such as which faculty would have to be sacked, which ones the Dark Lord had already fed to Nagini, and which would be coerced into maintaining their positions. Draco closed his eyes and fell back to sleep while Severus was talking, so Severus went to check on Narcissa, who was in the drawing room with Druella and just finishing her letter to Lucius.

            “You’re all a bunch of namby pamby blood traitors if you ask me. Lucius should stay out in the real world and do His work!” Druella said to no one in particular.

            “No one is asking you, Mother,” Narcissa replied patiently. She was very familiar with her mother’s views on everything; Druella was a very outspoken old lady.

            “Draco is sleeping again. The examination went well,” Severus told Narcissa.

            “Excellent. I was just going over my note to Lucius; care to check it over for me?” Narcissa asked.

            “Of course, Cissy,” Severus said taking the note. He read it, but it only contained a funny antidote about how Druella had gotten her wand stolen by doxies last week. “It’s coded then. What does the rest say?”

            “Just that we have decided to align ourselves with the other side after Draco fell in love with the opposition and that it is in the best interest of our family, if the Dark Lord is not successful,” Narcissa replied.

            “And it’s a crying shame too! That boy should’ve been taught to look where he’s sticking his tallywacker _before_ he winds up up the duff!” Druella exclaimed.

            “Yes madam, you’re absolutely correct,” Severus agreed.

            Narcissa huffed and replied, “Well it’s too late now. You’re only choice is to accept the marriage and resulting children or be sent back to Bella. Draco is my only son and I intend to keep him.”

            “And that’s what you get for having only one child! If you’d had three like me, you’d have room to disinherit one and send another off to the nuthouse. Did you know that the last time Bella checked on me she started cackling at the _tea_?” Druella asked.

            “Yes mother, because you’ve told this story to me at least a dozen times. Perhaps I should set a house elf to count them for me,” Narcissa replied.

            “I shall let you two lovely ladies enjoy your evening; I must be getting off to Hogwarts. Do send out your letter right away, Cissy,” Severus said.

            “Yes, I will. Thank you so much for stopping by. I’ll see you next week!” Narcissa said.

            Severus left and Narcissa went over her letter one more time, before calling Mipsy and having the elf deliver the letter. Delivering mail by house elf was safer for the mail, if more risky for the elf, and had the advantage that the elf could come back with information on Lucius’ whereabouts and even carry a return message.

            Of course the owl that had carried the first letter to her husband had come back with a return message. It was written on the back of the original letter and read only, “If that is how it must be, then so be it.” This time Narcissa was hoping for a more detailed response as well as information regarding Lucius’ location.

            Once Mipsy was off, Narcissa talked her mother into a game of cribbage to pass the time. The old woman muttered a bit more racist nonsense, which Narcissa politely indulged and she even agreed with most of it. Three hands in, Mipsy was back with a pop.

            “Lady Narcissa Malfoy, ma’am, Mipsy is having a message from Lord Lucius Malfoy, sir,” Mipsy said.

            “Yes, go ahead Mipsy,” Narcissa said, putting her cards down and holding her breath. She could feel her heart rate speed up at this critical moment.

            “Lord Lucius Malfoy, sir, said to tell Lady Narcissa Malfoy, ma’am, that family always comes first, ma’am, and that he wishes Master Draco Malfoy, sir, did not feel such a way, but that if Master Draco Malfoy, sir, truly does feel thusly, he will concede, ma’am. He would also like to know if the entire Malfoy family, sirs and ma’ams, is alright, because he has been very worried about the family, sirs and ma’ams. He has heard that Master Draco Malfoy, sir, is greatly ill and he would very much like to help care for Master Draco Malfoy, sir,” Mipsy said.

            “And where is my husband located?” Narcissa asked.

            “Lord Lucius Malfoy, sir, is a few miles south of here, ma’am, hiding in a cave, ma’am. He told Mipsy that he is hiding, ma’am, from Death Eaters, Aurors, and all other manner of witches and wizard, sirs and ma’ams.”

            “That close?” Narcissa asked with a gasp. She desperately wanted to see her husband again after more than a year of separation.

            “Yes, ma’am.”

            “Well don’t just sit there!” Druella exclaimed. “Send the elf to get him, just like Severus brought me! I don’t even know where the bloody knickers I am and neither will he. What bloody harm can we possibly do?”

            “Mother, Severus needs to examine Lucius’ with legilimency and veritaserum before we can let him in! Draco and the babies’ lives depend on this!” Narcissa replied.

            “Frosted whiz-bangs, you know the man can get past all that with his occlumency and whatnot. He fooled the Ministry the first time around, didn’t he?” Druella asked.

            Narcissa conceded that her mother had a point, but since it was her Draco’s life on the line, she insisted on waiting for Severus. She sent an owl off with a letter to Severus immediately. Severus replied back that he couldn’t do it today, but that he would do it next week, so she went back to playing cards with her mother. She wanted to send her husband another letter explaining that Severus would come for him next week, but she didn’t want to give Lucius the chance to spring a trap on Severus or report back to the Dark Lord, if this were a trap. So she didn’t write and stuck to her game of cards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I modeled Druella after my own racist grandmother. She's one those old WWII era fireballs. My aunts say that she'll live 'til 120 just to spite them.


	3. Chapter3

            Lucius was hiding out in a cave in France as near to where he could figure the Malfoy villa was as he could get. The cave was tiny, deep, and dark and barely afforded him enough space to curl up for the night; it was only high enough for him to sit up or crouch down. It was undignified for the Lord Malfoy to crawl into a cave to hide, but he did it for his family. All of wizarding society was closed to him right now and he didn’t dare risk associating with muggles, for fear of the Dark Lord or the Order tracking him down or worse; his family would be watching him, observing him, and making sure he was alone and if he wasn’t, they might just hold off on contacting him.

            A proper Malfoy is nothing if not prepared. As such, emergency preparedness was one of the skills passed on to Lucius from his father Abraxas, who had learned it from his father Septimus, who learned it from his father before him. It was a simple, if thorough, plan that involved stocking up enough rations, severing all contacts indefinitely, and going into hiding. If one member was separated from the rest, he or she was to first make sure they were alone and not being followed and then get as near to where he or she could figure the family was hiding and wait. The family would wait, watch, and observe for weeks or months until they could be absolutely certain that they would not be ambushed when retrieving the isolated family member.

            It was long grueling hours of boredom for which Lucius could do little more than sit and contemplate just what had happened in his absence to turn the tide, send his family into hiding, and turn their backs on the Dark Lord. He never questioned turning his back on his Lord, since it meant the safety of his family. From the moment he read his son’s letter with its short, but informative message, he knew that for whatever reason, it was now in the best interest of the family to switch sides.

            There were any number of reasons why it would be in the Malfoy family’s best interest to switch sides. The Malfoy motto was Purity Will Always Conquer, but that was just what they told people, when in fact the family’s motto really was Always Land on the Winning Side. It was ingrained in every Malfoy since birth that in any scuffle, skirmish, battle, or war, when it was all said and done, no matter what side the Malfoys were on when it started, they would switch to the winning side by the end. The most likely solution to why the Malfoys were switching sides was that Draco or Narcissa had come across irrefutable proof that the Dark Lord would lose.

            It was simple enough really: the Malfoy family would support the side with proper pureblood ideals up until the point in which it became obvious that the pureblood side would lose. Then the Malfoy family would collectively jump ship and land with their heads up and their feet on the ground, firmly insisting they had been on the other side all along. That must be what was happening now and Lucius was just the last to find out, because he had been locked up in Azkaban when the important decisions were made.

            Lucius would have given anything to have been free when it all went down and to have been there when his family decided it was time to bail. He wondered if perhaps young Draco had acted too rashly and the Dark Lord might yet have a chance at winning, but then he was also proud of Draco for taking care of Narcissa and Druella in his absence, especially when there was a war on. He had been well aware of first Narcissa’s and then her mother’s disappearances and he had originally thought that when he was released he would have to track down his wife and mother-in-law himself and then collect a frightened Draco from the care of his friends. He had been pleasantly surprised to find out that Draco had collected the family and the reason they couldn’t be found was that they had found it necessary for the entire family to go into hiding.

            Again Lucius’ thoughts drifted back to what could have possibly driven his wife and son into hiding. He wasn’t going to question the decision, but he was dying to know the reasons behind it. Was the Dark Lord’s vision of a pure wizarding society truly hopeless? Had Narcissa learned some critical bit of information about the flaws in the Dark Lord’s plans while staying with Him? Had Draco learned some critical piece of information about the capabilities and plans of the other side whilst at Hogwarts? Perhaps the Potter brat was even more powerful than anyone knew or the infernal late Dumbledore had something up his sleeve for the Dark Lord.

            But then Dumbledore was dead and Lucius couldn’t think of anything the old man could still do from beyond the grave. If Draco had gone into hiding _without_ killing Dumbledore, now that would be another story and would certainly explain the Malfoy family’s current modus opperandi. If Draco had failed his task, then there was real concern that the Dark Lord might kill Draco for the failure and then it would make perfect sense that Draco had gathered the family up and taken them into hiding. But Draco had not failed and Dumbledore was dead; Severus had even given testimony in front of the Dark Lord that Draco was critical in setting up the trap that Dumbledore had walked into, even if the boy hadn’t been able to pull off the killing curse himself; Severus swore that if it weren’t for Draco’s serious injuries physically preventing it, Draco would’ve succeeded by himself.

            Draco was a hero in Lucius’ eyes and he was certain from his first meeting after being released from Azkaban that the Dark Lord was proud of Draco and Draco’s actions too. Severus had told him that Draco was injured earlier in the school year and was not in sufficient shape to do battle or run from Aurors and had thus gone into hiding. Lucius had been concerned about his son’s injuries immediately, but until the letter from Draco explaining that he was still in bad shape, he had hoped that the injuries were minor. After all, a simple broken leg could prevent Draco from running from Aurors and fighting, especially if Draco couldn’t receive proper medical treatment, because he was wanted for questioning regarding Dumbledore’s death.

            But then Lucius’ world had fallen apart when he took Severus aside during his second Death Eater meeting and asked for details on his son’s injuries. That was when he learned that the sectumsempra curse the horrible Potter brat had hit Draco with _months_ ago was still posing a sever threat to Draco’s life. He had felt as if his heart was being wrenched from his chest and stomped on by angry giants when he learned of the critical condition Draco was in the last time Severus had seen him. Back then Lucius thought Narcissa and Druella may have taken Draco into hiding just to have a safe place to treat Draco’s wounds.

            That may be part of it, but with Narcissa’s latest letter sent just last week, Lucius had learned that that wasn’t all of it. The one line which stated that Draco had fallen in love with a member of the opposition had shocked Lucius to his core. He had never imagined that this had something to do with a love match. Of course if it really was too late and his son truly could not be persuaded from this course, then he would support his son, but he couldn’t imagine his little Draco throwing away their pureblooded ideals over a crush; there simply had to be more to it than that.

            For the last week now Lucius had been going through every possibility regarding who Draco’s love match could be. It couldn’t be anyone on the Dark Lord’s side of the war or otherwise the relationship would have no bearing on the war. So it had to be someone from one of the many families who didn’t support the Dark Lord. There was absolutely no way it was a mudblood, because he had raised Draco better than that. He thought he had raised Draco better than to choose a halfblood or a blood traitor, but there was always the possibility that he was wrong. He didn’t think he was; he thought Draco’s young man was most likely a pureblood from a family who opposed the Dark Lord.

            Lucius was ninety-nine percent sure Draco’s love interest was a young man. He and Narcissa always knew it was a possibility that their Draco was queer and Draco had confirmed their suspicions last year. He was fine with his son’s sexuality; in fact there were many queer Peverell couples in his family tree. Peverell wizards could bear young just as easily as witches could, so there was no issue with his Draco being queer. He loved his son and if his son loved wizards, well then that was fine by him. But which wizard could it be?

            A major hurdle is Lucius’ determination of who Draco’s young man could be was that he didn’t know which of the young men at Hogwarts were queer, so they were all suspect. There were twenty boys in Draco’s year and twenty in the year above and the year below Draco. Lucius thought it was most likely that it was someone close to Draco in age, although it was possible that it was someone a few years younger. But it couldn’t be someone more than two years older, or they wouldn’t still be at Hogwarts and Draco wouldn’t have met the boy at school.

            There were several possibilities Lucius came up with. None of which he liked, but many of them he disliked more than the others. The worst possible choice was Neville Longbottom. The boy was a pureblood and not from a family of blood traitors. The Longbottom pedigree was good enough that he would willingly accept the match, if it weren’t for the fact that the Longbottom boy was such a useless squib. The boy had barely enough magic in him to get him into Hogwarts and his only hope for a future career was in gardening.

            The Malfoys weren’t gardeners; it was beneath them. Sure the Malfoy women might take up gardening as a hobby to pass the time between caring for the children and supervising the house elves, but it wasn’t their career and they all had more magic in them than the wee bit it took to garden. Besides, the house elves always did all the real work of weeding, watering, and harvesting; all Malfoy women ever did was direct where things were to be planted.

            Lucius seriously hoped Draco had not picked Longbottom, but then he didn’t think his Draco much cared for the Longbottom boy and couldn’t picture the two of them together. He sighed and gave up on figuring out the riddle and let his mind wander off to more fertile areas of thought, such as what he was going to eat for lunch.

            Lucius had had plenty of rations when he started out, but he had been in hiding for over a month now and was running low. He opened his rucksack, which had a sizeable wizard space charm on it; in fact the inside of his rucksack was larger than the inside of this cave. He pulled out a bowl of pasta with a stasis charm on it that the house elves had made for him before he set off on this journey. He couldn’t eat it, because it was the last bowl of pasta he had and if he ate it, he wouldn’t be able to have pasta again for who knows how long. But he could multiply the bowl of pasta until he had two, which he did. Food that was stretched like this was less nutritious that regular food and if he kept stretching it, he’d eventually die of starvation while feeling full, but for now it was better to eat stretched food and not be hungry than to do without.

            He left the original bowl under the stasis charm and used his wand to heat up the second bowl. This wasn’t the Malfoy wand he had inherited from his father with the snake head and the cane; no, Draco had that wand ever since it was taken away from him when he was sent to Azkaban. He had to have a wand, so the first thing he’d done after being released, was to go to the Manor and find his old wand, the one he’d used before his father’s death. He found the wand right where he’d left it, hidden under the floorboards in the bedroom he had shared with Narcissa. The rest of the house was eerily empty with almost all of the furniture and Malfoy possessions gone; even the portraits were missing from the walls. He had assumed Draco had removed the valuables from the house and stowed everything away in the attic, where their dark artifacts were hidden. He didn’t bother looking for the furniture though, because everything he needed was under the floorboard in that bedroom: his rucksack filled with emergency supplies had been there for years waiting for an occasion such as this. All he had to do was order the house elves to add food and find some books.

            Lucius ate lunch, vanished the bowl, and then looked around his rucksack for something to do to pass the time. But then he’d been looking in his rucksack for something to do to pass the time every day for a month plus. He’d read all of the novels he had packed and half of the textbooks. Like the furniture gone from the Manor, most of the books were missing from the library. The elves did find one box of books shoved into the duct work somewhere; they all appeared to be over a hundred years old, but he still transferred the lot of them into his rucksack. The rest of the books had likely been shrunk and hidden in the attic and he hadn’t bothered going up there, for fear that he was being watched and that Death Eaters would come in behind him and figure out something was up. There were concealment charms and locking spells on their attic hiding place, but once someone knew to look up there, it was much more likely that they’d discover and dismantle it. They’d probably steal all the family valuables by the time he returned, so instead of going to the attic, he’d gone to a muggle bookstore and purchased a couple dozen novels, which besides being abhorrently muggle, were long since read.

            Lucius thought about re-reading one of the muggle books, but they weren’t that great in the first place and had all these confusing muggle terms, like phone and TV, in them. Finally he decided to peruse through a charming and very old book full of wonderfully dark curses. He could always use a new spell or two and he wouldn’t even use them on Longbottom, if in fact Longbottom was the boy Draco was besotted with.

            Lucius was an hour or so into the book on dark curses when he heard his intruder alert charms go off. He quickly threw down the book and pulled his crystal ball from his rucksack; this crystal ball was a very important tool in his emergency preparedness arsenal. He tapped it with his wand, making it reveal the view from the entrance to the cave, courtesy of his intruder monitoring charm. First he noted the long billowing black robes and knew instantly that it was a wizard. It was only moments later that the face of Severus Snape came into focus.

            “Ah shite,” Lucius said, packing his things back into his rucksack and preparing to apparate away, because he couldn’t let the Death Eaters find him.

            Just as Lucius was about to leave, he heard Severus’ voice from outside the cave, “Draco and Narcissa have sent me.”

            Lucius paused for a moment to consider the possibility that Severus was yet again playing the role of spy. Severus was obviously acting as a spy, but just whose side was he really on? Was he on the Dark Lord’s side and trying to lure Lucius out or was he telling the truth and knew where his family was? That was likely, because Draco was close to Severus at school and Draco might even trust Severus. And if the Malfoy family had switched sides and Severus really was Dumbledore’s wizard all along, then Severus would be the perfect person to help ferry his family over to the other side of this war. But that couldn’t be the case, because Severus had just killed Dumbledore.

            “Prove it,” Lucius spat, preparing to apparate at the drop of a sickle.

            “In the letter you received last week from Narcissa, she wrote to you about Draco’s love affair with someone from the opposition,” Severus said.

            That was true and what’s more was that Lucius couldn’t think of any reason why Severus would know that unless he was either in league with his family or had captured his family. Either way, he wanted to know more, so he stayed. “Go on,” he said.

            “You are not going to like who it is, but before I can take you to them, I need to test where your loyalties lie.”

            “My loyalties lie firstly with my family and secondly with the Dark Lord.”

            “The two are in direct conflict at the moment.”

            “Family always comes first with me.”

            “Yes, but your family is not in a state where they would be able to defend themselves against you, should you change your mind. Druella is old, Narcissa is no fighter, and Draco is ill.”

            “How is he Severus? Is Draco dying?” Lucius asked desperately. The words tasted like bile on his tongue and he hoped he would never have to utter such horrible words again. His only son possibly dying was the worst thing he could imagine. Turning against the Dark Lord was nothing compared with losing his son.

            “I believe he shall live, but he is very weak.”

            “Please take me to him, Severus, I’ll do anything you ask of me.”

            “Would you permit me to side-along apparate you into the Fidelius protected villa, so that you would not be able to get back in to do harm if you chose to leave?”

            “Yes.”

            “And would you let me examine your mind with legilimency?”

            “Yes. I won’t even use occlumency against you.”

            “Very well,” Severus said before diving into Lucius’ thoughts. Lucius seemed to be telling the truth, but that left open the question of how Lucius would react when he found out about Draco’s involvement with Harry. He broke the connection before speaking again. “I would like to tell you who Draco is involved with and witness your reaction.”

            “Yes, alright, anything. Oh Merlin I hope it’s not that Longbottom kid.”

            “Worse. It’s Harry Potter. Legilimens.”

             Lucius was in disbelief and was sure he must’ve heard wrong, because Severus couldn’t have just said what he thought Severus said. Draco could _not_ be involved in a relationship with Potter! It was ridiculous! Draco was even less likely to be with Potter than Longbottom. But Severus had said it was Potter and Severus was in his mind right now listening to his every thought, judging him. This would determine whether or not he would be taken to see Draco, his precious son. Draco was still injured and he wanted nothing more than to go to Draco and comfort Draco and it didn’t even matter how in love Draco fancied himself with whichever halfblood, even if that halfblood was Harry Potter, he just couldn’t be mad at his son right now.

            Of course if it was Harry Potter, it would explain why Lucius’ family had been forced into hiding. If the Dark Lord found out about the love affair, Draco would be a target. Lucius couldn’t let the Dark Lord have Draco, even if it meant siding with the infernal Potter. The bespectacled little git wasn’t going to take his son away from him. If his son really had chosen Potter, then he would stand by his son.

            Maybe there was some way Lucius could spin this so that the Malfoys came out on top. Maybe the Dark Lord would go down, but at the end of the war, they’d have Harry Potter in their family. He certainly didn’t want Potter in the family, because he hated the brat, but he was not so prejudiced to ignore the boon that they would receive by having Potter join the family in the event of Potter’s future defeat of the Dark Lord. There would have to be a wedding of course, but Potter could stay home tending to the wee little ones and be too busy to cause trouble. Then he and Draco could use Potter’s name to control the Ministry and get their pureblood agenda pushed through. The Malfoys would be in power once again.

            Severus broke the connection and said, “I’m glad you see it that way. I’ll take you to your son now.”

            Severus apparated them to the villa where Narcissa was waiting. Lucius hugged his wife and placed emphatic kisses all over her face, because he was just so happy to be reunited with her. “I’ve missed you so much, my dear flower,” he said and kissed her again.

            During the display of affection, Severus excused himself to check on Draco.

            “I’ve missed you too. I wanted to come get you already, but we had to be sure it was safe before we could let you in. You do, ah, know about Draco, yes?” Narcissa asked. At least this conversation was made easier by the fact that her mother was taking a nap.

            “Yes, Severus just told me he is involved with the Potter brat,” Lucius said and for once in his life, he tried not to sneer at Potter’s name.

            “The Malfoy brat now; Harry has agreed to take our last name, so when the war ends, the name Harry Malfoy will be splashed across the newspapers.”

            “But that would mean a wedding before the end of the war. Is Potter here? Could we arrange a wedding?”

            “I already did. They’re already married and Harry is in hiding elsewhere, but I have word that he’s safe.”

            “You already did? Don’t you think that’s rushing it Cissy? Even if they’re in love and it would be great to have Potter in our pocket, we ought to give Draco a chance to change his mind. There’s still the chance that when he recovers, he’ll change his mind and want to go back to the Dark Lord.”

            “Lucius, it’s too late for that. I had to rush the wedding, because Draco’s pregnant; that’s what’s wrong with him, not the sectumsempra we’ve led everyone to believe.”

            “Pregnant? No, not our Draco! He wouldn’t…”

            “He said it was a bit of an accident. The boys got carried away and Harry went too far before Draco realized what was happening and now we are going to be grandparents.”

            “Draco should’ve stopped it as soon as he realized what was happening.”

            “They’re teenage boys; they said it finished as soon as it started and Draco was already pushing Harry away, trying to get him to stop. It was an accident, but they seem to be genuinely in love and are committed to making it work and raising their impending family together.”

            “Where is Draco? Why isn’t he down here?” Lucius asked, wondering why he had yet to see his son, if his son was only pregnant and not dying. Pregnant by Potter wasn’t exactly good news, but it was better than dying.

            “He’s been very tired lately, because of the pregnancy. He sleeps most of the day away.”

            “That’s not normal for a Peverell pregnancy.”

            “Extreme fatigue is normal when the other father is away. Draco hasn’t seen Harry since Dumbledore’s death. He’s supporting the entire pregnancy on his magic alone and what’s more, it’s twins. There are two babies draining his magic.”

            “Twins? This just keeps getting worse. Why isn’t Harry here helping Draco?” Lucius almost said Potter, but he caught himself just in the nick of time.

            “It’s not safe for us to have Harry here. He is a target wherever he is and as such, he doesn’t even know where we are. Draco left him a note and we took off.”

            “So Draco is married to Harry Potter and pregnant by Potter and Potter doesn’t even know where Draco is? Brilliant.”

            “Not Harry Potter, Harry Malfoy. But otherwise, precisely.”

            “It’ll take some maneuvering, but with a Malfoy like Harry, I’m sure to be able to land a spot on the wizengamot. It won’t be as lofty a position as I’d have with the Dark Lord, but Draco will be able to move up even higher, given that he is married to the savior, and will certainly be able to get our puppet candidate into office. Then Draco will be adviser to the Minister for Magic and pull all of the strings, just like my grandfather Septimus. Maybe I can have Severus put me in contact with some of the people on Harry’s side. I hear they’re looking for a new leader.”

            “Severus is on the outs with the Order right now.”

            “Are we at risk then? Will he turn us over to the Dark Lord?”

            “No, Severus is loyal to us. I believe he is also still loyal to the Order, even though they are no longer speaking to him and he killed Dumbledore.”

            “Why did he kill Dumbledore, if he was loyal to Dumbledore?”

            “For one thing I made Severus take an unbreakable vow to help Draco and complete his task for him and for another, Dumbledore ordered Severus to.”

            “Dumbledore ordered his own death? The man must’ve been more senile than I thought.”

            “He was dying anyway and this way, with Severus killing him, he ensured that his spy would be fully accepted among the Death Eaters.”

            Then the topic shifted to all of the things Lucius had missed while in Azkaban. Lucius and Narcissa talked on until Severus’ voice rang out from the stairwell, “Draco is awake and wishing to see his father.”

            Lucius was suddenly nervous and anxious all at once. “Will you go with me?” he asked Narcissa.

            “Of course dear,” Narcissa replied and the two of them walked upstairs.

            Severus was inside Draco’s bedroom, standing unobtrusively against the wall. “The exam went well,” he said as Lucius and Narcissa entered.

            “Father?” Draco asked. He was exhausted, as usual, but he was so excited to have his father back that for the first time in a month that he felt like getting out of bed. As it was, he slowly sat up and dangled his feet over the edge. Sitting up was harder now, because his waistline had grown, but he managed.

            “Draco, my son, I have missed you so much,” Lucius said going over to the bed and gently hugging Draco, as if his son might break. Draco looked horrible; pale and thin, but bulged out at the waist, with dark circles under the eyes. “How have you been?”

            “Hanging in there, I supposed,” Draco replied. “I’m so glad you’re here. Did mother tell you everything?”

            “Yes and don’t you worry, I’m going to find some way to make this work. Us Malfoys will land on our feet; we always do. You are my number one priority and within ten years, you’ll be the advisor to the Minister and have Potter, er Harry, at home busy with the children.”

            “Thank you,” Draco said, closing his eyes for a moment, due to the exhaustion, but opening them back up again, because he was so elated to see his father again. “You’re not mad at me?”

            “Draco, at this moment, I am exceedingly happy to be reunited with you and your mother. This is a setback, I admit, but it’ll be easier to rule with public opinion on our side. This may just be better in the long run. But don’t worry about that now, tell me about my grandchildren. Your mother tells me there are two of them.”

            “Yes, two boys. Professor Snape says they are both okay, but there’s not much else to tell.” Draco yawned and then one of the babies kicked him in the ribs. “Ow! One of them just elbowed me!”

            “May I feel?” Lucius asked, tentatively holding his arm out towards Draco’s belly, waiting for permission before touching. Draco agreed and then he was pushing his hand up against Draco’s distended belly, feeling the movements of his grandsons. It was absolutely amazing and suddenly it clicked for him that there were two new Malfoys on the way. Two boys would create some problems when it came to inheritance, but they would make it work and the Malfoy line would live on, which was the best possible news he could receive after his months of worry over his son’s health. He had thought for a while there that Draco might die and with him, the Malfoy line would die too.

            Draco yawned again and the babies were no longer moving, so Lucius said, “You’re tired again, my dragon. You can go back to sleep and we can talk later.”

            “No, stay. Tell me about everything that’s happened; from Azkaban to Professor Snape picking you up.”

            “Alright, but if I’m going to stay here awhile, suppose I join you on that giant bed of yours?”

            Draco agreed and Lucius climbed onto the other side and did what he had been longing to do for a year now: take his son into his arms and hold him. He rested his pointy chin on Draco’s head and began to tell Draco about everything that had happened to him since their last parting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Lucius? Next chapter will be Harry and we’ll get to see how he’s doing without Draco.


	4. Chapter 4

            While Draco was safe in France with his family and growing ever weaker, Harry was hiding out in the woods with Ron and Hermione. Ron had been splinched, which meant there was a lot of waiting and not much action. They had a horcrux, but no way to destroy it and because of Ron’s injuries, they couldn’t move. Harry was keeping guard and while he did so, he was thinking about Draco, as always. He pulled out his charmed galleon and flipped it over in his hands while he thought, but it was too late at night to send Draco a message.

            Voldemort and his Death Eaters were in control of things now, but there were a few Death Eaters missing; Draco for one and Lucius for another. Months ago Harry had seen a flash from Voldemort at the Malfoy Manor where Voldemort declared Lucius a deserter, but Snape had talked Him out of ordering Lucius be killed on sight. To Harry, it was good news that there was one less Death Eater and that he wouldn’t have to go up against Draco’s dad, but it also caused him worry.

            What if Lucius was missing because he was with Draco? Harry kept telling himself that that couldn’t possibly be the case, but he had trouble putting the idea out of his head. And what about Snape, who seemed to have inside information on the Malfoys, but hadn’t claimed to have current information. And just why was Voldemort in Malfoy Manor, if the Malfoys were all deserters and in hiding?

            Harry sat and thought and worried over these nagging questions, but then his thoughts always came back around to Draco. How was Draco doing? How far along would Draco be with the pregnancy now? It was September, so that meant about six months. What would Draco look like swollen with his children. Draco was already beginning to show the last time he had seen Draco and with carrying twins, Draco must be huge by now; not that he would ever tell Draco that, because Draco didn’t like being called fat. He wondered how Draco was holding up.

            Harry’s thoughts drifted to what his unborn sons would look like. There were two of them, so he was hoping that meant at least one of them would get Draco’s grey eyes. He wouldn’t mind if both boys looked like Draco, just as long as they didn’t look like Lucius; he knew he was being a bit ridiculous with that desire, because Draco looked like Lucius, but that was still what he wanted. He didn’t want his children to look like him; he didn’t want to pass on his dad’s face or his mum’s eyes, because he didn’t want his children to have to grow up in his shadow, always being compared to him and told they looked like him. If he succeeded, his children would probably be in the spotlight just for being his and it would only be worse if one of them looked like him.

            With all the worry Harry was experiencing lately, his thoughts inevitably turned dark and he contemplated the other reason he didn’t want his children to look like him: if he lost the war, he didn’t want his children to be discovered as his. If he died and Voldemort lived, the babies would be much more likely to be discovered as his if they had black hair and green eyes. There were lots of people with black hair in Britain and there were people with black hair in Draco’s family, so maybe Draco could talk himself out of trouble if the babies had black hair. But although his green eyes weren’t entirely unique, they were rare enough to present a complication, because as far as he knew, there was no one with green eyes in Draco’s family. None of the other kids in his year had eyes like his either, so Draco might be in for some serious explaining if he turned up with a pair of kids with green eyes.

            Harry still wanted his sons to take after him somewhat, but he was hoping for his more common traits, like his decidedly unpointed chin. Sure he had grown to love Draco’s pointed chin, but he would still rather his sons have his chin. Then he started thinking about the pictures he had of his mum and wondering if either of the boys would take on any of her features. It would be nice if they did, because then his sons would have something from him, without having something that people would automatically link to him.

            Then his thoughts drifted to what Draco might be doing right now. It was late, so Draco was probably sleeping. Draco wouldn’t have to keep watch like he and Hermione had to do. Ron was getting better now and was doing a share of the daytime watches, but Ron needed his sleep, so Harry took the first watch tonight and Hermione would take the second. Constant vigilance was dull, grueling work. He wished he could be safe with Draco instead.

            Harry was still miffed that Draco had chosen to leave him behind. Sure he had been thinking of doing the same thing not but a week earlier and they had talked about Draco disappearing when things got bad, but he still felt a bit abandoned and lonely, even though he knew it was for the best. Now that he knew how it felt, he thought he understood what Hermione had been so upset about when she had discovered that he had been thinking about leaving Draco. Not that he would ever say that out loud, because Hermione would just throw it back in his face that this was his idea and Ron would just put all the blame on Draco. Neither of those two options was appealing to him.

            Ron had been alright about Draco those last few weeks before Dumbledore’s death. When Draco had been mad at Harry about the twins, Ron had been there for Harry and assured him that Draco would come around, but Ron’s attitude towards Draco had changed. At first, right after Dumbledore’s death, Ron had accused Draco of having something to do with it and of plotting with Snape. Harry didn’t believe it for a minute, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

            In the days after Dumbledore’s death, Professor Slughorn had discovered that Draco was missing. Harry knew the reason behind Draco’s disappearance was that Draco was going into hiding and that Draco was not responsible for Dumbledore’s death. Draco had learned of the trouble up at the school before Harry could get back to Grimmauld Place and so Draco and Narcissa had taken off and gone into hiding immediately. Although, it was a tad suspicious that Draco and Narcissa found out so quickly and Harry did wonder how they knew and if they knew in advance.

            While staying in Grimmauld Place in preparation for their infiltration of the Ministry, Harry had questioned Kreacher regarding just when Draco and Narcissa had left that day. He didn’t believe what Kreacher told him at first, because he didn’t believe that Draco could’ve written the note just after Harry had left, before he and Dumbledore had even made it to the cave. But Kreacher was his house elf and as such Kreacher couldn’t lie to him when directly ordered to tell the truth. Kreacher vehemently insisted that Draco and Narcissa had left within half an hour of Harry leaving.

            Eventually Harry had come to accept that Draco knew that Dumbledore was going to die that night before he knew, but he still refused to place blame for the death on Draco’s shoulders. Sure Draco or Narcissa had gotten word that something was going down that night and instead of trying to get help, they had chosen to go into hiding, but that didn’t mean that Draco was in league with Snape or knew what Snape was going to do all along, like Ron recently suggested. Snape probably warned them that something was up right after Harry left and the Malfoys had chosen to go into hiding instead of getting in the middle. Ron called it cowardly and although Harry wished that things had played out differently and Draco had told someone like Professor McGonagall, he was also grateful that Draco hadn’t put Draco and the babies in danger by getting in the middle of it and trying to stop Snape. At least Draco had kept the babies safe.

            Hermione, of course, had her own hypothesis regarding Snape and Dumbledore’s death. At first she had been just as shocked as the rest of them, but then Harry had divulged the details he knew regarding Draco’s mission from Voldemort. He knew that Draco had turned it over to Snape and that Dumbledore had ordered Snape to do it.

            Ron choose to see the worst in Draco regarding the secret mission, insisting that somehow Draco must have only told Snape and not Dumbledore and that Draco was involved in Dumbledore’s death; if not the execution, then the planning. Hermione went the other way with it, and somehow twisted the facts around in her brain to come to the ridiculous conclusion that Dumbledore had ordered his own death. Dumbledore wasn’t suicidal, so Harry refused to accept that possibility. Besides, he had been there when Dumbledore died; he knew what really happen and his two best friends did not. Draco’s task wasn’t to kill Dumbledore and whatever it was, Snape had chosen to kill Dumbledore instead of completing it for Draco. Sure Draco must have known something was up with Snape that last day, to trigger Draco’s decision to go into hiding, but that could’ve been something far less culpable than knowing that Snape was actually going to kill Dumbledore—no one could have predicted that—not even Dumbledore had predicted that.

            Harry didn’t know what Draco’s task was, but he had faith in his husband, so he believed he knew what Draco’s task was not. Hermione and Ron were both wrong, so Harry put those thoughts out of his mind. At least, he tried to.

            During Harry’s darkest times, when he was sitting up late at night guarding their camp and wearing Slytherin’s locket, he would wonder if Ron was right and if Draco really had known all along what Snape was planning. He would think back to that letter Draco had written hours before Snape had killed Dumbledore and he would try to remember the exact wording Draco had used. Had Draco specifically mentioned what was going down? Had that first line stated that Draco knew in advance that Snape was going to kill Dumbledore? Or had that first line merely stated that something dangerous was happening that night?

            Harry couldn’t remember which it had been. He was so overwhelmed and distraught with grief at the time that he couldn’t decide if he assumed the first line was referring to Dumbledore’s death because it was so blatantly on his mind or if Draco specified that. And he hadn’t had much time at all with the letter before it had blanked itself. He had read Draco’s words over and over again, but it was all a blur now and he couldn’t remember.

            Harry chose to believe the best in Draco and that Draco didn’t know what exactly was going on. Ron, however, believed the Daily Prophet. In the days after Dumbledore’s death when it became apparent that Draco, one of Snape’s favorite Slytherins, was missing, rumors began to circulate that Draco was involved. Not that Draco knew, but that Draco planned the entire thing; the prophet even suggested that Draco had been ordered to do it by Voldemort himself and that Draco was a Death Eater. The article was backed up by testimony from several of the sixth year Slytherins, such as Pansy Parkinson and Vincent Crabbe.

            The article rang eerily true to Harry’s ears. Draco had even told Harry that he had the dark mark on his arm, although Harry had never seen it. That combined with the fact that Draco knew too much and it added up to Draco being guilty. But that couldn’t be the case, because whatever Draco’s assignment was, Dumbledore had known. Dumbledore had _ordered_ Snape to do it himself, so there was no way Draco’s task had been to kill Dumbledore. It was probably something that presented such a challenge to Snape that Snape decided it would be easier to kill Dumbledore than complete and it just worked out that with Dumbledore dead, Snape could go back to his true master.

            Harry didn’t see Snape with Voldemort very often in his visions, but from the ones he had seen lately, Snape seemed to be in favor. Snape had certainly moved up in the ranks and quite possibly was now Death Eater numero uno, right up there with Bellatrix Lestrange. It sickened Harry that Snape had used the murder of the one person who had trusted Snape and had vouched for Snape, even given Snape a second chance and a new life, to move up in the ranks in the eyes of a madman.

            Harry shook his head and tried to think about something else, to keep himself from focusing on just how much he loathed Severus Snape.

            Harry turned his thoughts back to Ron and the problems he had been having with his best friend. Just that afternoon, when Ron had taken a turn guarding the locket and Harry thought he would have a lie down in preparation for his nightly shift on guard duty, he had overheard Ron and Hermione talking about Draco. Hermione was on Harry’s side, saying that Draco really wasn’t as bad as Ron thought, but Ron was bringing up all of the bad things Draco had ever done to them. From telling on them and costing Hagrid the dragon Norbert in first year, to Buckbeak and the dementors in third year, to all the fights Harry and Draco had had fifth year.

            That first part wasn’t so bad and he had tried to ignore that part, opting to stay on his cot with his eyes closed and hope that sleep would come. But then Ron had started listing all of the things Draco had done wrong in Ron’s eyes sixth year, from Ron’s poisoning to Katie Bell being cursed. Then Ron brought up the time Draco had been mad at Harry when Draco had just found out about the twins. After that Ron went off on Draco for abandoning Harry to go into hiding.

            At that point Harry was sure the next words out of Ron’s mouth were going to be that Draco had been involved in Dumbledore’s death, so he had gotten up and shouted at Ron to shut up and that Ron didn’t know what Ron was talking about. Draco hadn’t been involved with any of those things and Draco had a right to be upset after being told of the twins. Ron had shouted back that Harry was married to a Death Eater and the children would turn into snobby pureblood scum, just like Lucius and that Harry should leave Draco and take the children. Harry had returned with that Draco was nothing like Lucius and he was going to stick by his husband. Ron had laughed at that and accused Draco of abandoning Harry after Dumbledore’s death, again. Harry had returned with Draco was only doing what Draco knew Harry wanted.

            Ron and Harry would’ve gone on shouting at each other and arguing, but Hermione got in the middle of them and told them to stop it. She sent Ron outside, to guard the tent, and sent Harry back inside. Hermione had stayed with Harry and tried to calm him down and assure him that Draco was a good person and that Ronald didn’t know what Ron was talking about. He had thanked her and tried to sleep, but by then it was too late and he couldn’t get the thoughts out of his head; he kept hearing Ron’s accusations against Draco over and over again. Had Draco been involved with the necklace and the poisoned mead?

            Harry wished he could ask his husband about it, but then he also wanted to trust his husband and believe that Draco had only been concerned about Narcissa. He forced the negative thoughts out of his mind, shifted his focus to Draco, and wondered who was taking care of Draco medically now that Snape wasn’t in the picture.

            It had to be Narcissa who was giving Draco his regular exams. Snape had trained her to be able to cast all of the necessary diagnostic charms and as long as nothing went wrong, she probably had the prenatal care stuff down. He wondered if she would know how to deliver the babies when the time came, but then she had given birth once herself, so she should have a general idea what to do. The details of a Peverell delivery were slightly different from a typical birth by a female, but from what he read, the birthing process wasn’t that complicated or dangerous. She could probably pick up everything she needed to know by reading a medical book on the subject. She would definitely have all of the supplies she would need, because Snape had ordered them.

            Draco and Narcissa must’ve taken all of the supplies for the baby with them when they went into hiding hours before Dumbledore’s death. When he, Ron, and Hermione had first gone back to Grimmauld Place, one of the first things he did was look through the house. There was no evidence that Narcissa had been living there and the room Draco had claimed would be turned into the nursery still had the bunk beds up, even though he thought Draco had said that the bunk beds had been taken down. He didn’t like to think that Draco had lied to him, so he decided that he must be remembering it wrong and what Draco really said was that the bunk beds _will_ be torn down.

            Then Harry began to think of Dumbledore and Snape; he couldn’t quite understand how Snape had fooled Dumbledore all these years. Yes, there was what Harry had learned from Professor Trelawney about Snape being the one to overhear the prophecy and Dumbledore had subsequently claimed that it was Snape’s regret over telling Voldemort that had brought Snape over to Dumbledore’s side. But it was a lie and Snape was playing the old man all along and Dumbledore should’ve seen it. Maybe Dumbledore was growing senile, like Draco claimed.

            The memories of Draco at Grimmauld Place were the best and the worst for Harry. At the time, he had been so happy; the hours leading up to the wedding and the hours after the wedding had all been spent there. Their honeymoon, if however short, had seemed so magical. He had had Draco and he had felt like Draco was his, had belonged to him, and not even the war could tear them apart. But that had ended oh so very quickly when reality set in and Draco had vanished, leaving him only a note.

            They had had a goodbye, when Harry had thought there was a chance that he wouldn’t survive the night of horcrux searching with Dumbledore. He had told Draco goodbye and that he loved Draco. Draco had even said it back, which after all that time it took Draco to say it in the first place, was still somewhat hard for Harry to believe. Harry clung to those words in the aftermath of Dumbledore’s death; at least he still had Draco out there somewhere safe and waiting for him. As soon as this was all over, he would be reunited with his husband. He just hoped that would be before the babies were born.

            Harry had thought that there was a chance he would miss the births of his sons. He might be out on a horcrux hunt and come back to find Draco sitting up in bed with a newborn in each arm. But with the way things were now, he might very well miss a lot more than just the births. He wouldn’t be able to hold or even see his sons until Voldemort was dead. That could take years. What if it took another two years and his sons were two years old by the time he could finally meet them? What if it was longer and his sons asked him where he’d been all this time? Or what if he died and Draco was left to be a single dad, while Voldemort took over the world?

            Of course Harry still wanted Draco and the boys to escape Voldemort and take off to the other side of the world. He imagined that Draco would find a pureblood witch to pretend to be the birth mother; Draco would probably arrange phony marriage documents to prove it and then arrange a divorce, so that the witch could go on with her life. Draco would tear up their wedding certificate, the one that said Harry and Draco were married in June of nineteen ninety-seven. He would be little more than a pile of ashes and memories while Draco and the boys would move on with their lives. Would Draco find someone else to love? A new boyfriend or worse, a new husband, and forget all about Harry? Would Draco ever tell their boys the truth of their parentage? Or would his sons grow up thinking they were someone else’s kids?

            Harry knew it was for the best if Draco and his sons moved on with their lives; he even wanted them too. But there was just something about thinking about it that felt like someone was driving a stake through his heart.

            He couldn’t think about it, so he switched to thoughts of how he was going to continue to keep knowledge of his and Draco’s relationship and the pregnancy from Voldemort. Now that Dumbledore was dead, only a handful of people knew the truth. Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Narcissa all were gifted occlumens; even Snape was gifted at occlumency. Of the people who knew, Snape was the biggest concern, because Harry had no way of telling if Snape would keep their secret.

            At first after Dumbledore’s death, Harry had been worried that Snape would spill the secret about Draco and the babies directly to Voldemort, in order to gain prestige. But for whatever reason, Harry could find no evidence that Snape had told. In the glimpses he had inside Voldemort’s head, there was not one indication that Voldemort knew about Draco. There was not one mention of Draco or the babies in the news or on the wizard wireless. Harry didn’t know why Snape was protecting Draco and the babies, but he was convinced that Snape was.

            When Harry thought about it, he could only come up with one reason Snape might have for protecting Draco. Snape must still be under the influence of the two unbreakable vows Snape had sworn to protect Draco and the babies. Narcissa had asked Snape for an unbreakable vow to protect Draco before the beginning of sixth year and Draco had asked Snape for an unbreakable vow to protect the babies when Snape had agreed to be Draco’s healer. There was no reason to believe the unbreakable vow to protect the babies wasn’t still in effect and although he didn’t know the exact wording of the first vow, he was convinced that it too must be in effect. Snape was in all likelihood bound upon penalty of death from exposing Draco and the babies and so wasn’t a threat to their safety.

            That left Harry himself as the biggest threat to the safety of his own family. He was still a mediocre occlumens at best and with Voldemort being an extremely gifted legilimens, if Voldemort wanted to wring information out of him, Voldemort could probably do so. But he was not going to take Voldemort lying down; he was going to fight back and keep Voldemort too busy to break through his inadequate occlumency shield. And he was going to prepare for that battle by building up his occlumency shields.

            Harry had every hope that by the time he actually confronted Voldemort again, he would be at least a halfway decent occlumens. He was practicing occlumency every day that he was free to do so. During a lot of the time he had spent at Grimmauld Place, he was too busy planning the raid on the Ministry, but when he had the time, he would practice his occlumency. And now that they were waiting with no real plan to work on, all he had was time.

            Harry would meditate with Ron and run through mind clearing exercises with Hermione. Hermione even was trying her hand at legilimency; she was not nearly as good at it as Draco was, but she was getting there. But then Harry had already developed a thick enough shield to foil Draco’s attempts and Hermione’s attempts were weaker than Draco’s, so Harry had no real challenge to his occlumency shields. He had no way of knowing if he was actually improving or if he just thought he was improving. Well no way except he was getting slightly better at shutting down his connection to Voldemort when it flared up. He always wanted to look and see what Voldemort was up to, to look for clues that Voldemort had heard something about Draco, so he wasn’t so good at blocking the visions, but the strong feelings he’d get from Voldemort were another story. He had no reason to want to feel what Voldemort was feeling and he was now fairly proficient at shutting Voldemort out the moment the feelings started to transfer across.

            And so Harry didn’t know for certain that his occlumency was improving, but he thought and hoped it was. And on long nights like this when he was out in the forest on guard duty with nothing to do but listen to his thoughts and stare out into the dark, he would practice meditating and clearing his mind, trying to build his occlumency shield just a bit thicker, in hopes that when the time came, he really would be able to keep Draco and the babies safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there’s what’s going on in Harry’s mind and what has changed from the original; everything not mentioned went down just the same as Rowling wrote it.
> 
> That pretty much covers everything that needs to happen before the births of the twins, so next chapter will skip ahead to the big day. For those of you who have been concerned over Draco’s health in Harry’s absence, I don’t think Draco’s health ever had a chance of being in jeopardy. Muggles live without magic, so even if his magic was completely drained, Draco would survive. The babies, however, are another story. They need the magic to support the unnatural pregnancy and when the magic runs out, the babies will come out. Whether the pregnancy is far enough along for the babies to survive on their own is the question. Any thoughts?
> 
> Please Review!


	5. Chapter 5

            It was Monday November thirtieth and the Malfoy family was barely starting to think about preparing for Christmas. Just that morning Narcissa had instructed the house elves to bring down all the old decorations that had been stored in the attic by Lucius’ parents when they had lived here. The decorations were all old, so Narcissa was sorting through them to see which ones were still good. She had talked her mother Druella into helping her, although Druella didn’t help much; mostly Druella sat in a chair and told her what was wrong with wizarding society these days.

            Lucius was very much aware of the fact that he couldn’t go out and buy his family gifts this year like he normally did, so when Narcissa pulled out the decorations, he pulled out a set of books on how to make gifts. He spent the morning sorting through the books and eliminating most of them, based on the fact that he didn’t have access to the proper supplies. The transfigurations gift book he eliminated just because using transfigured items was a low class thing to do. Even if he was making the gift himself, he refused to sink that low; plus, how many transfigured crystal goblets did one really need? There was a very large set of real crystal here at the villa, left over from his mother.

            Finally, just before lunch, Lucius decided on the woodworking gift book, because it was full of spells and directions for making furniture out of wood, including a cradle, which would be useful given that Draco was due to deliver a week before Christmas; Narcissa had ordered two basinets, but all Malfoy infants had a hand carved antique magic cradle that rocked and soothed the young heir as needed. But Draco wasn’t using the Malfoy cradle or any of the other Malfoy furniture, because Draco was having two babies, not the one baby Malfoys typically had. And it was always nice to have a spare cradle in the room, so he thought he might make a pair.

            When the antique clock struck noon, the family sat down to a simple meal of soup, cheese, and bread. The soup was tomato, basil, and cream, made from jarred tomatoes, because the garden had long since stopped producing fresh ones. The cheese and cream were from the dairy cows on the property and the bread was made using wheat from their storeroom. They were all sick of it and longed for the days when they still had fresh grapes, even though they had all been sick to death of grapes by the time they had used the last of them. Now the only grape products they had were the wine and the grape preserves.

            After lunch the family gathered in Draco’s bedroom to wait for him to wake up. He was now very heavily pregnant and only woke up to eat, before falling right back to sleep. And since that was the case, the only times the family could communicate with him were meal times, which was why they always made an effort to gather in Draco’s room while he ate. That and they thought it made Draco feel better to have his family around.

            A house elf delivered a tray of the same tomato soup and cheese the family had just finished eating, along with a bowl of elf made ice cream and a large glass of whole milk. Ice cream had more calories in it than most of the other foods the family had on hand and he really needed the extra calories due to his pregnancy, so the family was saving all of the ice cream for him. Narcissa went over to his bed and gently stroked his face in an effort to wake him up and said, “Wake up Dragon, it’s time for lunch.”

            Draco woke up, but was still groggy. He had been tired the entire time he had been at the villa, but it had been so bad the last three months that he remembered very little of it. There was pain and discomfort from having his abdomen swollen to the size of a beach ball and a burning in his arm when the Dark Lord called, sleeping, and eating. If he was lucky, Mother and a house elf would clean him and help him brush his teeth. But mostly, he had slept away the last three months.

            Seeing his family gathered around him, Draco smiled a small smile and then sat up to eat in his bed. When he finished, he lay back down and his mother said, “I’m just going to cast the usual spells and then you can go back to sleep.”

            Draco nodded and Narcissa began to cast. She checked Draco once a day now, right after lunch, but didn’t go through the entire list of diagnostic spells. The full list was saved for the weekly visit from Severus, but Severus couldn’t come every day. At this advanced stage in his pregnancy, Draco could go into labor at any time and Severus would need as much warning as possible. Plus the last few weeks were the most risky as Draco’s body struggled to support two ever growing babies; the last thing they wanted was for something to go wrong at the end.

            Thus Narcissa checked the health of each baby, making sure they were getting enough oxygen and nutrients and their waste products were being properly filtered out by Draco’s body. Then she did the spell that would determine if Draco’s body was preparing to go into labor. Draco wasn’t in labor yet, as evidenced by the fact that the second cervix on his considerable baby bulge was not moving, but the body would start preparing for labor hours or even a full day before labor started.

            The family let out a collective gasp as they watched the results of the labor detecting spell, because for the first time, it indicated that Draco was indeed going into labor.

            “I’ll fire call Severus,” Lucius announced, standing up and striding quickly out of the room.

            “Draco, darling, your body is preparing for labor. You’ll be in labor soon,” Narcissa told her son.

            Draco heard what his mother said, even though he had been about to drift off to sleep again. The shock of the news was just enough to have him opening his eyes and looking up at his mother again. He was too tired to feel excited or nervous and it just barely occurred to him that this meant he would be in pain soon. “Pain potion?” he asked in a rough voice; he hadn’t said much in months and his voice was rough from disuse.

            “Yes dear, I’ll get out the potions and find the pain one,” Narcissa said, squeezing Draco’s hand gently before turning to the large desk in Draco’s room where Severus had left all of the potions. She moved the rack over to Draco’s nightstand and pulled out a long lasting pain potion, which she fed to Draco. It wasn’t the strongest one, but then Draco wasn’t in any actual pain yet and there was no telling exactly when the pain would start. “Now you just close your eyes and try to get some rest. You’ll wake up when it’s time.”

            Draco did as instructed and was quickly back asleep, even though he could hear his mother and grandmother talking in the background.

            Narcissa and Druella whispered excitedly as they went about turning Draco’s room from a bedroom into a delivery room. They got out all of the birthing supplies, such as umbilical cord clamps and scissors, soft baby blankets and fresh sheets for Draco’s bed. Then they gathered items for cleaning the babies, such as two suction bulbs to clear the airways and a baby tub filled with warm soapy water and spelled to stay the perfect temperature. Then there was a nappy bag already packed with cloth nappies, undershirts, nightgowns, and booties. Finally they pulled out two basinets, which Draco had insisted he didn’t need, but Narcissa had ordered anyway.

            Narcissa was just spelling the sheets underneath Draco to switch with the fresh set of sheets when Lucius came back in, and announced, “Severus is letting the Carrows know that they need to cover for him for a few days and then he’ll be right over.”

            “Good. Now all we can do is wait,” Narcissa said, folding the top sheet over and tucking it under Draco’s hips, so that it sat low on Draco’s waist, under the huge baby mound.

            Draco was lying on his side with a pillow propped under his belly, as usual, because the babies were far too large for him to be comfortable lying on his back. Narcissa pulled up a chair next to his bed and sat to watch the second cervix for any signs of movement. Lucius sat down too, next to Druella, and they all waited.

            It was an hour before Severus arrived and began casting the full regiment of diagnostic spells. When he was done, he stood back and announced, “All three of them are in good health and Draco’s body is indeed preparing to go into labor.”

            There were a few grateful comments from Lucius and Narcissa directed at Severus and then Severus went and double checked all of Narcissa’s preparations. The adults changed into clean muggle clothes, in case something went wrong. Then there was nothing else to do but to wait. The four adults had dinner in shifts, Severus and Lucius going to the dining room first to eat, while Narcissa and Druella sat and watched Draco. Then Severus and Lucius watched Draco, while Narcissa and Druella went to eat. No one bothered to wake Draco and disturb his peaceful slumber for one last meal, because the last meal always came up during labor anyhow. Instead Narcissa called the house elves and informed them that Draco wouldn’t be eating for the time being.

            It was seven fifty-two in the evening when Draco’s cervix started twitching. Draco didn’t wake up, but Severus, who was watching at the time, noticed it. Draco slept for an hour more before the pain woke him; Severus gave the boy a stronger pain potion and Draco went back to sleep. Draco’s water broke soon after, sending a flood of liquid out of the opening second cervix. Severus vanished the fluid and then vanished fluid again half an hour later when the second water broke, since there were two babies. The next time Draco stirred it was to vomit, which Severus also vanished, before giving Draco a glass of milk with the usual anti-nausea tea mixed in. Draco didn’t wake again until midnight, when his cervix was halfway dilated. Again Severus gave him a pain potion and again Draco went back to sleep.

            At three in the morning, December first, Draco woke up again in excruciating pain. Severus gave him yet another pain potion, this one a non-drowsy one, and said, “You need to stay awake this time Draco; you’re dilated and it’s time to push.”

            Draco didn’t want to stay awake and he didn’t want to push. He was exhausted and still in pain, despite the pain potion taking the edge off. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep through his discomfort. He closed his eyes, but the pain was too much for him to sleep and Professor Snape was there telling him he needed to push. Father and Mother were there too, whispering comforting words into his ear and Grandmother Druella was there in the background, urging him along.

            “Why?” Draco wondered. If he just went back to sleep, wouldn’t his cervix open up wide enough that he wouldn’t need to push? Wasn’t that what the book on Peverell pregnancies said?

            “Because there are two babies Draco and we need to get the first one out sooner, so the second one does not get distressed,” Severus answered. “Now push and help the first baby line up for me.”

            Draco’s eyes didn’t open, but he did push down like he was taking a shit, squeezing whoever’s hand who was holding his as he did so.

            “Very good Draco; I can see a head. It’s covered in light colored hair,” Severus said. There was a small amount of Draco’s blood smeared on the head, so he couldn’t be sure of the color, but he thought the baby probably had Draco’s blond hair. Draco’s cervix was open so wide that before the push Severus had been able to see inside the uterus and had seen pale skin and tiny moving limbs, but the first baby wasn’t quite in the right position to come out before and now he was. “Go ahead and push again when you’re ready.”

            It took a lot of coaching, but Draco did push, push again, and push quite a few more times after that. And then the head was out and Severus reached inside Draco and pulled on the tiny shoulder as he supported the tiny head. With the next contraction the first baby came free and Severus was clamping and cutting the cord, wrapping the baby in a blanket, and handing the crying baby off to Narcissa to clean. “It’s a boy,” Severus announced over the din of baby wails, even though everyone in the room already knew that Draco was expecting two boys.

            While Severus was tending to Draco and preparing for the second birth, Narcissa had taken the baby over to the desk and was suctioning all of the mucus from his nose. He wiggled and squirmed and announced his complaint to the world with his wailing cry. Then she took him over to the tub and bathed him with her mother’s help. She dressed her grandson, wrapped him up in a clean blanket, and finally he calmed down and his little cries tapered out. She brought the quiet baby back over to Draco’s bedside for her son to see.

            “Draco sweetie, he’s gorgeous, really. He’s got your hair,” Narcissa said.

            Draco opened his eyes and looked at the little bundle in his mother’s arms. Something instantly clicked in his brain and for the first time in months, he felt something other than tired; he felt love. He wanted to reach out and take his son, but Professor Snape was there trying to get his attention too.

            “Draco, I need to reach in and get the second baby out now; he’s not doing so well in there,” Severus said seriously. The second baby had never been as big or as healthy as the first and now the diagnostic spells were showing signs of stress.

            Draco reached out and stroked the little cheek of his first born son and said to Professor Snape, “Go ahead.”

            Severus reached in with one hand and pulled out the second baby. “Pass me a suction bulb,” he said.

            Lucius passed Severus the clean suction bulb and Severus began suctioning the clogged nose, before even bothering to cut the cord. Unlike the first baby, this baby wasn’t crying and his airways were fairly blocked. It took a minute for Severus to free both nostrils of debris, but even when the airways were clear, the baby still wasn’t breathing. He opened the mouth and checked to make sure the throat was clear, which it was. And although the baby was squirming in Severus’ hands, the baby still wasn’t breathing. Severus rubbed the little back and urged the little guy to breathe, but the baby didn’t breathe.

            “He’s not breathing. When I cut the cord we need to rush him off to a muggle hospital immediately. Lucius, you and Narcissa take the baby and Druella and I will stay with Draco and the other baby,” Severus instructed.

            They had been going over emergency plans for months now, Severus having long since decided that the best course of action should something go wrong was to seek out a muggle hospital to help. St. Mungo’s would be best, if it weren’t for the fact that Death Eaters were in control of the facility. And since they couldn’t go there, the only alternative was to seek out help from muggles. Muggles had healers too and regularly used muggle means to save lives and deliver healthy babies. Thus Lucius and Narcissa would take the baby to a muggle hospital to see if the muggles could save him, while Severus and Druella would stay and make sure Draco and the first baby were alright.

            At Severus’ words, Draco turned his attention from his first beautiful blond baby boy to his second baby boy. The second one was tiny compared to the first and had tufts of wet black hair. His face looked puffy, but his features seemed distinctly Malfoy; Draco could distinguish the pointy chin and thin nose. He instantly loved this baby just as much as the first and his heart clenched to know that there was something wrong with his son. He wanted so much to reach out and take his baby into his arms, but he knew the baby needed medical attention. He had not been awake much in the past months, but his mother had told him about the emergency plan of asking for help from the muggles; they could always obliviate or confound the muggles later.

            Severus clamped and cut the cord, before depositing the baby into a blanket in Narcissa’s arms. Narcissa took the baby to the nearest muggle hospital via a side along and Lucius followed her, apparating separately. Once they were gone, Severus turned back to Draco, who still had two placentas to pass and was very weak. Severus gave Draco a stronger pain potion, one with a drowsy side effect, now that Draco was no longer needed to push. Then he gave Draco a strengthening potion and told his patient to go back to sleep.

            Druella was watching the first baby sleeping in one of the basinets. The little guy, like his father, was all tuckered out.

            Draco was worried sick about his second son, who he hadn’t gotten a chance to hold and hadn’t even touched. He tried to recall the image of that little face, but then the potions Severus had given him began to take effect and he was pulled instantly into a dreamless sleep.

            While Draco was asleep, Severus delivered both placentas and observed as the second cervix retracted back down, closing the opening, before disappearing altogether. He cleaned his sleeping patient and pulled the covers over Draco’s chest.

 

* * *

 

 

            As Narcissa walked towards the deserted muggle emergency room in the middle of the night, carrying her still not breathing grandson in her arms and followed closely by her husband, she quickly went over the lie they would tell in her mind. She couldn’t just tell the muggles that her son had given birth to this little boy, because muggle men couldn’t give birth. Therefore this baby had come from her son’s girlfriend and her son was at home helping to tend to the new mother and the first baby.

            Severus had informed Narcissa that muggles were in the practice of insisting on seeing the actual mother, but Narcissa and Lucius didn’t have a mother at home they could bring in to prove their point. Instead they would insist that the mother was refusing to come in for treatment, because she didn’t want her family to find out she had even had a baby. The muggles would call their muggle-Aurors in and check out their story, but not before they treated the baby. Once the baby was healthy, Lucius would obliviate and confound muggles as necessary, and they would apparate away with the baby.

            Lucius and Narcissa rounded the corner and found themselves at the entrance to the muggle hospital, which was guarded by a muggle-Auror. “We have an emergency! The baby isn’t breathing!” Lucius exclaimed in French.

            “Alright, we’ll get you right inside and get the baby some help. How old is he?” the muggle-Auror asked, also in French, leading them into the muggle facility.

            “Just born; a home birth. Our son’s at home with the mother and we brought in our grandson,” Narcissa said, handing the tiny baby over to a muggle-mediwizard.

            The muggles took over from there and went right to work on the baby, who was now turning blue and no longer moving. They shoved a tube of some sort down the baby’s throat and hooked wires and monitors up to him. Narcissa watched from a distance as another muggle and the original muggle-Auror asked them questions, which Lucius answered. Lucius was better at lying seamlessly than Narcissa, so while she was going over the story in her head, he took over and spoke to the muggles.

            “What’s the mother’s name?” the muggle-Auror asked, writing down notes on a pad of muggle-parchment with a stick instead of a quill.

            “Hermione Granger, but she didn’t even tell her parents she was pregnant and refused to let us tell them. She ran away from them months ago and has been staying with us. She doesn’t want the babies. She said she’d give them to our son and then go back to her parents like nothing ever happened, but the second one is so tiny and he wasn’t breathing,” Lucius answered.

            The Malfoys were not aware of the fact that Hermione had altered her parents’ memories or sent them to Australia; they knew only that Hermione had been in hiding and not seen her parents in months. Therefore if the muggles tried to check out their story, the Malfoys thought they would turn up at the Granger residence, and the Grangers would confirm that their daughter ran away. As it was, in the days to come, the muggles would investigate the Grangers and find out from neighbors that the Granger girl hadn’t been seen in months and the parents had moved out of the country, so there was no one to question.

            “Babies you say? Where’s the other one?” the muggle-Auror asked.

            “At home with my son and my wife’s mother. They are looking after the first baby and his girlfriend,” Lucius answered, as Narcissa eyes remained fixed on their grandson in muggle care. He hated that they had to turn to muggles for something, but he wasn’t too proud to ask for help even from filthy muggles when it came to saving his grandson’s life.

            “What condition is the first baby in?” the muggle woman standing next to the muggle-Auror asked, also in French. This woman had a uniform on that indicated she worked at the muggle-hospital, but Lucius didn’t know what her job was; her name tag just read Suzette.

            “He was breathing and much bigger than this one. The pregnancy was only two weeks shy of full term and he looked like a full term baby,” Lucius answered.

            “What color was his skin?” Muggle- Suzette asked.

            “Pink. He had my son’s fair complexion; blond hair,” Lucius answered, wondering what the muggle was getting at.

            “Good, that means he is likely in good health, but we’ll still need you to bring the first baby, your son, and the mother in for a check-up,” Muggle-Suzette replied.

            “Alright, we’ll go back for them when you’ve sorted out my grandson. Is he breathing? What’s happening with all those tubes and wires?” Lucius asked.

            Of course they couldn’t bring in a non-existent mother, but they might be able to bring their son and other grandson in once Draco was healed up and it was no longer evident that he had just given birth; that would mean giving Draco time to rest, but they could stall the muggles for now. Although, it would be safer for Draco and the first baby if they could get this baby out of the muggle hospital without forcing them to leave the safety of the Fidelius protected villa.

            “The baby is connected to a machine that is breathing for him. His heart rate is good and his coloration is turning back to normal. He is very small and sometimes the preterm babies like him just need a little extra help breathing for a while. The nurse is cleaning him up a bit. Once we get finished with our questions, the doctors will move him to the NICU, where he’ll be closely monitored and you and your wife can stay with him.”

            “Alright,” Lucius agreed, not knowing what a nickyou was, but relieved to know the baby was going to live. “So he’s going to live, correct?”

            “Yes sir, the baby will most likely be fine,” Muggle-Suzette assured them.

            “Great,” Lucius replied.

            “Now what is your son’s name?” the muggle-Auror asked.

            “Drake Malcolm,” Lucius lied. They didn’t want this visit getting back to Death Eaters or Aurors, who were both looking for them. And muggles tended to ask for ID cards, so he had already made up a set of cards for the family with the last name Malcolm.

            “And your name and your wife’s name?” the muggle-Auror asked, writing in his muggle-pad again.

            “Lawrence and Nancy Malcolm,” Lucius lied again. It was going to be difficult to remember to respond to the fake names, but they would get used to it or confound the muggles. They couldn’t give their real names, because their real names were too unique and might be recognized by wizards.

            “And where do you live?” the muggle-Auror asked.

            Lucius gave an address to a guesthouse that was part of the estate of their French villa, but not under the fidelius charm. The guesthouse was empty, so the muggles wouldn’t find anything there and they wouldn’t even realized that a large chunk of land was missing next to it. Only people like Lucius who knew that the villa had been next to that guesthouse would know; in fact, that guesthouse was how Lucius knew he was in the right area when he had been looking for his family. Once he located the guesthouse, he found the closest place to hide nearby, which happened to be the caves.

            There were a few more questions about the details regarding the birth, which Lucius answered, telling the truth where applicable and lying when it was something Peverell specific. The muggle-Auror thanked them for their cooperation and muggle-Suzette led them over to the muggle-team who had worked on their grandson; their grandson was now in a clear muggle-box on top of a metal cart on wheels. Together the team of muggles, pushing the baby in the muggle-contraption, and the Malfoys walked through the muggle-hospital until they reached a door labeled NICU. They entered a large room full of muggle-medi-witches and babies in muggle-boxes on wheels.

            When they stopped, the muggles set up their grandson’s muggle-box next to all the other muggle-boxes and went about moving wires and cords and things. One of the muggles placed a sign on their grandson’s box which read, “Baby Boy Malcolm.”

            After fifteen minutes, one of the muggles in a white lab coat who had been looking over paperwork said in French, “Hello, I’m Dr. Martin and your little guy here is going to be alright. We’ve got him breathing with the help of a respirator. We’ll monitor him closely for the next day or so, until we can get him breathing on his own. Since he was only two weeks early, he is quite small for his gestational age. That is probably owing to the fact that he was a twin and the other baby was getting more of the nutrients. Other than his difficulty breathing and his low birth weight, he’s in good health and will survive. In all likelihood he will be released in a week or so.”

            “That’s great! Thank you sir.” Narcissa’s French wasn’t as good as her husband’s, because unlike Lucius, she hadn’t been taking holidays in France since childhood. She had mainly learned French after marrying Lucius. Spending summers with Lucius and the rest of the Malfoy family here at the villa had forced her to learn.

            “Yes, we are indebted to you for saving our grandson,” Lucius agreed.

            “But, we do have a few other concerns, because he has a few birth defects. Is there any history of birth defects in your family?” muggle-Dr. Martin asked.

            “No, but he looks fine,” Lucius insisted. Other than the fact that the baby was tiny and not breathing, he hadn’t noticed any abnormalities.

            “His left leg is thinner than the right one and the lower leg is bent, or bowed out more than the right one. The left foot is also turned in, or pigeon toed. We see both in a lot of babies and bowed legs often straighten themselves out all on their own, but if it’s still bowed when he’s a toddler, then we’ll put a brace on the leg that will encourage it to grow straight. We don’t have a way to make the left leg the same size as the right, so all we can do is hope that fixes itself.”

            “Alright,” Narcissa agreed. A bent and somewhat thin leg was something that St. Mungo’s could easily fix once the war was over and the baby could receive proper wizarding medical care. As long as the muggles didn’t want to do anything about it now, it wasn’t a problem.

            “The pigeon toe is more of a concern right now. What we like to do is put on a special pair of shoes with a bar in between them, connecting them so that the feet are held outward. It encourages the feet to grow further out, instead of in, and after a few years the problem is corrected. It’s best to start sooner rather than later with the pigeon toe.”

            “Um, sorry Doctor Martin, but we’d prefer to hold off on that just a bit; we haven’t had a chance to confer with our son,” Lucius said, interrupting the muggle-healer, because he didn’t want his grandson to suffer through unnecessary muggle treatments.

            “Well he is a bit small, so we would wait until he gets up to seven pounds before we’d fit him with a pair of shoe braces.”

            “How much does he weigh now?” Narcissa asked.

            “Two pounds and fourteen ounces. But there is one other birth defect I need to talk to you about.”

            “Oh my,” Narcissa replied concerned.

            “Another one?” Lucius asked. Weren’t three enough? Potter must have really bad genes, because the Malfoys had never had a birth defect in the family.

            “Yes and this is a somewhat sensitive matter. You see, his penis appears to be misshapen; it’s as thick as his limbs; thicker in fact then the left leg. For a baby with his small size, the penis should be correspondingly small. At this point we’re not positive it’s functional, but if he is indeed able to urinate out of it, well then we would leave it as is until he’s older. We can send him out to a specialist, but I’ve seen genital birth defects before and if possible, they prefer to wait until the children are older to operate; generally around the age of twelve or thirteen, when puberty hits,” Dr. Martin said.

            Narcissa looked over at the baby in the incubator, but there was a nappy covering the genitals. The nappy had quite a bulge, but it wasn’t charmed, so that was to be expected and she wasn’t so sure there was anything wrong with the little guy’s wee-wee. She had seen the baby naked after birth and she hadn’t noticed anything unusual then, but she was concentrating on getting the him help and the fact that he wasn’t breathing, so she could’ve missed it.

            “Um, could I see what you are talking about?” Narcissa asked.

            Dr. Martin agreed and ordered a muggle lady to show them. The muggle had on gloves when she reached into the incubator and unfastened the nappy. She let Lucius and Narcissa have a look inside, before closing it back up. She had trouble closing it, despite the fact that it looked far too large for the tiny baby, because it wasn’t designed to fit a penis of that size.

            “With all due respect, healer, but it looks fine to me. My son’s was the same when he was born and he turned out just fine; no surgery and no complaints from the ladies,” Narcissa said.

            “Yes, our son was the same way. When he was born, my mother assured me that I looked the same and she said that my father had had the same before me. No surgeries needed and no complaints regarding usage,” Lucius confirmed.

            “Well it’s certainly possible that he’ll grow into it. Right now with it being thicker than the left leg and down to his knees in length, it seems hard to believe that he’ll be able to walk like that. But hopefully his legs will grow and his penis won’t. It might all even out and like you said, he might just be fine without surgery,” Dr. Martin conceded.

            “Doctor, when do you think we’ll be able to take our grandson home?” Lucius asked.

            “He’s almost at three pounds; once we get him up to three pounds and get him breathing on his own, we can downgrade him from critical status and move him over to the SCBU. Right now he’s in the NICU, which is the highest level of critical care we have, but if he holds stable for the next few hours and if he urinates successfully, we’ll move him down to the NHDU, which is an intermediate level of care. Then it’s SCBU and then he can go home. He’ll have to be seen regularly once he’s released and once he makes it up to seven pounds you’ll have to bring him in for the shoe braces. And there will be more follow ups regarding the bowed leg and the over-sized genitalia later on. Understand everything alright?”

            Lucius and Narcissa did not in fact understand, especially the abbreviated terms, but they didn’t want to point out how little they knew of muggles, so they nodded their heads. The healer left and a muggle-medi-witch pulled up two chairs for them to sit in. They sat and waited and the muggle woman introduced herself, in French of course, as their nurse. She said she was assigned to look after only one baby, their grandson, for the next two hours. If he stayed stable, they would downgrade his status and move him over to the next ward, where there were two babies per nurse.

            Then the muggle-medi-witch explained that the little guy was being fed continuously through a tube that went down his throat, directly to his stomach. It was a bit disturbing, but if it was the best muggles could do then they had no choice, so Narcissa and Lucius sat there and watched their grandson sleep. After an hour, the little guy proved that his penis was functional by urinating. Since the nappy didn’t fit right, the stream of urine didn’t stay in the nappy; there wasn’t much of it, but the thin stream shot up his abdomen and then dribbled onto the blankets in the incubator.

            The muggle-nurse was pleased with her patient, despite the mess she had to clean up. The baby needed a new blanket and nappy and she had to wipe off his belly too, but she did it all the while saying silly things in French like, “Oh what a good boy you are. You made such a good little tinkle. I bet your grandma and grandpa are so proud of you.”

            Lucius and Narcissa were proud of the small feat, even if they weren’t sure why the muggle-nurse was calling it a tinkle.

            After two hours the baby was moved down the hall, to another large room and assigned to another French speaking muggle-nurse. Once Narcissa and the baby were settled into the new room, Lucius rose to his feet and said in English, “I’m going to go home and inform our son that everything is alright.”

            “Get some rest and come back in the morning; we can take shifts watching our grandson,” Narcissa replied, also in English.

            Lucius agreed and then walked out of the hospital and far enough down the street that there were no muggles in sight. He apparated into Draco’s room in the villa, thankful that Severus had finally trusted him enough to pass him a scrap of parchment with the secret. He had set fire to the parchment after reading it, to ensure that their hideout remained a secret.

            Draco was asleep and Druella had long since fallen asleep in her chair. The first baby, the larger blond one, was sleeping in Severus’ arms. Severus was the only one in the room awake and was watching them all.

            “Well? What news have you?” Severus asked.

            “The second baby is alive and breathing with the help of some muggle contraption. The muggles said they might be able to release him in a week or so. Narcissa is guarding him.”

            “Excellent.”

            “Narcissa suggested that I get some rest and perhaps it would be prudent for you to get some as well.”

            “Yes, perhaps I’ll take the baby over to the nursery and have a lie down on the spare bed in there.”

            “Shouldn’t you leave the baby with Draco?”

            “He’s out on pain potions. When this little guy needed a feed I had to hold him up to Draco’s chest and help him latch on; Draco just slept right through it.”

            “Well in that case maybe it would be better for you to take the baby to the nursery,” Lucius agreed. “And I’ll just levitate my mother-in-law off to her own bed.”

            And so Lucius levitated Druella down the hall to her bed, before lying down on the bed he shared with Narcissa. Severus took the first baby to the nursery and sat himself down in the rocking chair while he looked at the beautiful face. He couldn’t be sure, because the features were so tiny, but he saw a distinct resemblance to Lily. The second baby had Harry’s black hair and resembled Draco, but this first one had Draco’s blond hair and looked like Lily. He was tired, but this was the first time in sixteen years that he had seen those lips, forehead, and cheeks in the living flesh and not just in a picture. He couldn’t be sure about the nose, because it was too small, but maybe even the nose might be Lily’s nose.

            Severus was absolutely enthralled with the tiny image of Lily to the point where he couldn’t bear to put the baby down. He kept yearning for those eyes to open and look at him again. When the baby had woken up for his first feed, he had opened his eyes and Severus had been hooked instantly. The eyes weren’t green, but nor were they blue, and they were too dark to be Draco’s grey eyes. This baby had dark grey eyes that were a shade that only a baby’s eyes could be. There was absolutely no color one way or another, except for dark grey. If either parent had had brown eyes, he would’ve thought that the baby’s eyes would be brown. But the darkest eye color in the family was Harry’s green eyes and so Severus was hopeful that this baby might just have Lily’s green eyes.

            Eventually Severus’ eyes closed of their own accord and he fell asleep in the rocking chair holding the baby. That night he dreamed of Lily; that she was here with him and he was showing Lily her grandson; the joy he would see in her beautiful green eyes. To this day Severus still dreamed of his Lily and those eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The babies are finally here! There’s still more drama to come with the little one, but at least he’s alive and Lucius and Narcissa saved him.
> 
> Drop me a review and let me know what you think! Was it all you’ve been waiting for?


	6. Chapter 6

            Draco woke early in the morning, stomach growling with hunger and the pain coming back. He looked around the room and saw all of the evidence of the births, but no people. He then looked down at his stomach to see that it was already much smaller than it had been. It wasn’t back to normal yet, but it was definitely flattening out and the second cervix was finally gone. Plus he didn’t feel nearly as tired as he normally did. He still ached and was somewhat drowsy, but he was awake enough to call a house elf and request breakfast.

            When he was almost done with his meal, Draco heard crying from the other room. Professor Snape came in moments later with his first baby and handed his baby over for the first time.

            “He’s hungry and needs to eat,” Severus said.

            “Um, just how do I do that?” Draco asked, staring at his son’s tiny face in awe; the face was scrunched up and wailing, but also chubby, wrinkled, and topped with tuffs of blond hair.

            Severus helped Draco position the baby and then helped the baby latch onto Draco’s elongated nipples. Then he sat back in a nearby chair and watched as the baby fed.

            The baby suckled on Draco’s nipples and it felt weird. He looked down and was horrified to see what his chest had become. He was somewhat grateful for the fact that he had been too busy sleeping through these last few months to notice the change, but he was still shocked by it nonetheless. He didn’t have boobs, thank Merlin, but his pecks were swollen; he looked like one of those men who worked out way too much. He reached down and pushed on his free peck, thinking that it’d feel like muscle, but it had too much give; it was hard and hurt when he pushed, but not in the way muscle was hard. “Ow,” he said, pulling his finger away.

            “Does the other breast hurt?” Severus asked concerned.

            “Yeah, when I poke it.”

            “That’s because you only have the one baby here and your body is making enough milk for two babies. It will only get worse if we don’t start pumping the extra milk.”

            “What is the other baby eating?”

            “The muggles are feeding him in the hospital, but I don’t know what.”

            “Well if I _pump_ this bloody milk, can’t my mother and father take it to the hospital for him?” Draco made the word pump sound like it was a dirty word.

            “Yes, would you like me to get the pump set up?”

            “Yeah, I guess,” Draco said, not that he had a choice. The unused side was only hurting worse as they continued talking, probably because he was thinking about it now. And he didn’t want his other baby drinking muggle milk; who knows what they put in it or where they got it from.

            Severus went to the storeroom and found the box with the magical breast pump for Peverell males along with a box filled with glass baby bottles, all of which he brought back to Draco’s bedroom. He set up the contraption and bottles and brought it over to Draco, who was burping the blond baby, and waited adoringly for Draco to finish. Then he took the baby from Draco and laid him down in the basinet, before going back to Draco’s side and hooking the two pumps up to Draco’s elongated nipples.

            Draco watched Severus in horror. If his pecks being all poofed out and engorged with milk wasn’t bad enough, he was just noticing how _long_ his nipples were. They must be over an inch long and looked like teats! And his old head of house was maneuvering the teats into the holes of the pumping things. The pumps stayed in the proper position with magic and then Professor Snape spelled the machine to start suctioning out the milk from his body; the left side, where the baby had just pulled milk from, was spurting out a thin stream of white milk, while the right side was gushing forth with a very thick stream of milk. He could see the milk trickling down into a bottle on the left and the milk pouring down in a torrent into the bottle on the right.

            Draco felt rather grossed out by the process and pulled up his sheet to cover himself so that he didn’t have to see it. Severus had retrieved the baby from the basinet and was now holding him in the chair next to Draco’s bed.

            “Is this the first time he’s eaten?” Draco asked, just now realizing how long it had been since the birth and knowing that babies this little were supposed to eat every two hours.

            “No, this is the second. He woke up two hours ago and two hours before that, you gave birth to him; he hasn’t missed a feeding.”

            “Oh good,” Draco said relieved. “But I don’t remember feeding him before.”

            “You were still asleep. I held him up to you and helped him latch on, without waking you up.”

            “Oh, wow, thanks! Um, you seem to really like him,” Draco said, noticing how unusual the normally stoic professor was behaving.

            “We have taken a liking to each other, I suppose. He reminds me of my best friend Lily.”

            “Lily Potter?”

            “No, Lily Evans. We were friends before she married that blasted Potter.”

            “So he looks like Harry’s mother then?”

            “Yes, he has her cheeks, chin, and even her forehead. And his eyes aren’t green yet, but I’m sure they will be.”

            The thought that his baby resembled a muggle-born flashed through his mind for a moment, but Draco quickly shook it off. “What about the other baby? He looked like me, didn’t he?” Draco asked, trying to remember what his second baby looked like, but he had only gotten a glimpse. He’d been kind of out of it on pain potions at the time and he couldn’t remember much besides black hair and the vague recollection of pointy features.

            “Oh yes, the second boy was the spitting image of a Malfoy if ever I saw one. Are you going to keep referring to them as the first and second baby, or do you have names in mind?”

            “Well I do have some names in mind, but only one first name. And I want to see them before I decide.”

            “That’s understandable,” Severus said before checking the progress of the breast pumps. The milk in the right bottle was nearing the top. He put the baby down and changed it out and while he was doing so Lucius walked in and picked the baby up.

            “Morning, Draco, Severus,” Lucius said, before looking back to his precious grandson who he held in his arms.

            “Morning Father. How is the other baby? You were with Mother, weren’t you?” Draco asked concerned, trying to ignore what Professor Snape was doing to his chest.

            “Yes, I went with your mother and I’ll be going back there in a minute, after I eat. The muggles got the little Malfoy breathing and have him hooked up to some muggle breathing machine. It’s the oddest contraption and they have him inside a glass box on top of a rolling cart with all these wires and tubes and machines with buttons and lights. They said that it’ll probably take a week before he starts breathing on his own and they release him.”

            “I wish I could see him and hold him,” Draco admitted.

            “Well the muggles did say that they would like you to stop by with the other baby to get checked out, so if you really want to see him, we could arrange that. But it’d be safer if you didn’t leave the villa and at the very least we should wait until you’ve had a chance to recover,” Lucius said.

            “Perhaps it would be best to take a camera with you, Lucius, and bring back a photo of your other grandson. Muggles have cameras, I believe,” Severus said, finished with Draco’s pump. He capped the bottle full of breast milk, cast a stasis charm on it, and set it on the desk.

            “Yes, I’ll do that,” Lucius said. “I better eat quickly and get going; I’m sure your mother is exhausted by now.” He had only slept for two hours himself, but it was two hours more than his wife had gotten.

            Severus took the baby back from Lucius and said, “Take the bottle of milk and get the muggles to feed it to the other baby.”

            “Alright, I will,” Lucius said, grabbing the bottle and going downstairs to the dining room. He quickly ate, before finding their camera and apparating to the hospital.

            Lucius found his wife and handed the bottle of milk over to the muggle-nurse, asking her to feed it to the baby. She agreed and quickly went to switch out the formula they had been giving the baby for the real breast milk. She even took the baby out of the glass box so that he could take a picture. He kissed his wife and handed her the camera, before telling her to go home and get some sleep.

            Having been up all night, Narcissa agreed and said she would come back to relieve him. The muggle-nurse tried to tell them that it was alright to leave and assured them that the baby would be fine in her care, but the last thing they wanted to do was leave their grandson in the care of a muggle unsupervised; who knew what weird muggle things she might do to him while they were gone! Lucius stayed and Narcissa promised to come back when she woke up.

            Narcissa went home and checked on Draco, who was asleep in his bedroom. She left the camera on Draco’s desk and went in search of Severus and her other grandson. She found Severus asleep in the spare bed in the nursery with the blond baby sleeping in his arms, instead of the crib that was only feet away. She gently picked the little guy up and placed him in the blue and silver crib, because it was closest to Severus. Then she went downstairs and ate quickly, before going to her room and sleeping for four hours.

            While Narcissa was asleep, the blond baby woke up again and Severus took him over to Draco’s room for a feed. Draco woke up and held his son and Severus set up the breast pump on his other side.

            While Severus was at work, Draco spotted the camera and asked, “Professor Snape, would you take a picture of this baby and then develop the pictures for me?”

            Professor Snape agreed and snapped a shot of Draco feeding the baby. Then he went in search of the darkroom. He called a house elf, who told him about the shed out back where Abraxas Malfoy developed photos. He went to work sorting through the various chemicals and looking for photo quality parchment.

            Draco finished feeding and burping the baby and put him down on the bed by his side, putting a pillow between the baby and the edge of the bed, so that he wouldn’t fall off; it was a giant bed, so there was plenty of room. Then he reached for the instruction booklet for the breast pump and set about figuring out how to stop and unhook the contraption. Once he had that done and the full bottle of fresh milk under a stasis charm, he went back to his bed and curled up with his first born son, while missing his second born.

            After a few minutes, Draco began to wish he could talk to Harry right now. It was dangerous to communicate with Harry, who could be intercepted by Death Eaters or the Dark Lord at any time and whose occlumency skills sucked, but he was alone and he really needed someone to talk to, so he decided to do it. He pulled out his parchment with the Protean charm on it from his nightstand drawer, where he had left it right next to his galleons charmed to communicate with Harry and Hermione.

            The parchment was the same one he had used to leave Harry that first message, after their wedding and Dumbledore’s death. He had left a blank parchment, the other half to this one, on Harry’s bed. When he was safe at the villa, he wrote on his charmed copy, which transferred his message to Harry’s parchment. Draco had seen the message Harry had sent after reading Draco’s message, but he didn’t want to encourage Harry to communicate with him while they were in hiding, so he hadn’t written back.

            Draco wrote: “I had the babies during the night. The first one was healthy. Mother took the second one to a muggle hospital; I haven’t seen him since and I didn’t even get to hold him. I’m alone and I’m scared.” He didn’t write names or sign it, in case it was intercepted.

            Fifteen minutes passed without a response from Harry, so he pulled his charmed coin out of the nightstand and tapped it with his wand, making the words, “Look at your parchment,” appear on it. Five minutes later the coin heated up and changed to read, “What’s wrong with him?”

            Harry must not have known that messages could be sent back, despite his earlier successful use of the parchment. Thus Draco picked up his quill and wrote, “He wasn’t breathing. You can write messages back to me on the parchment and I’ll get them.”

            It was another several minutes before he got a reply back, this time on his parchment. It read, “Sorry, I had to find a quill and ink. Is the baby alright now? Did the muggles get him breathing? I love you and I miss you and I want to be there with you.”

            Draco wrote back, “The muggles have him on some sort of breathing machine. They said they would need to keep him on it for a week. I’m not sure of all of the details; I wasn’t there.”

            “I’m sure he’ll be alright; muggles have gotten really good at taking care of babies. What do they look like? What did you name them?”

            “The first one has blond hair. Mother told me she thinks he looks like your mother and will most likely have green eyes,” Draco wrote, switching out the mention of Professor Snape for his mother, because Harry didn’t know Professor Snape was with him. “The second one had black hair and looked more like me, but I only saw him for a second. I haven’t named them yet. I haven’t had a chance to find a decent Potter name.”

            “They sound wonderful. I can’t wait to meet them and tell them I love them. And I found a name I thought you might like. Well, Hermione helped me find it, and it’s not astrological per se, but I thought you might like it.”

            “What is it?”

            “Hyperion. It’s Greek—Hermione says he’s one of the Titans and the father of the sun, the moon, and the dawn—and it was the name of a Potter who lived hundreds of years ago.”

            “It’s perfect. How did you find it?”

            “I didn’t have that book you have, but Hermione found an ancient book on the pureblood lines at headquarters. Even hundreds of years ago they had horrible taste in names, but I liked Hyperion. Can I come over and keep you company? I’m not doing anything here; we’re out of leads.”

            While Draco was writing, Druella came into the room, having just finished breakfast. She picked up the baby and went to sit in the chair next to Draco’s bed. Then she asked, “What are you doing, Dragon?”

            “I’m writing to Harry,” Draco replied and wrote, “No, you can’t come. I’m not even the secret keeper, so I couldn’t tell you it if I wanted to. I’ll be alright; my grandmother just walked in. Got to go. I love you.”

            Druella replied, “You best be careful what you write now.”

            Harry wrote back, “Don’t go. I love you too. Please keep writing to me.”

            Draco tucked the parchment away in his drawer and put the lid back on his bottle of ink, before looking up at his grandmother and saying, “I didn’t tell him much; just that the babies were born.”

            “Good. Have you eaten yet? You need to keep up your strength now that you’re breast feeding.”

            “Yeah, I ate.”

            “You need to drink sixteen ounces of water every time you breast feed, so that you don’t get dehydrated. Have you drunk that much?”

            “No Grandmother, I’ll drink some more now,” Draco said grabbing the empty glass off of his nightstand and filling it with water. He drank it and then started on a second glass.

            Draco was still drinking his water when Professor Snape came back with two photos, one of Draco and the blond baby and the other one of the raven haired baby with tubes sticking down his throat and taped in place to his face. Draco put the glass down and picked the pictures up, caressing the tiny face in the photo as the little boy’s chest moved up and down, indicating that he was breathing. He was so much smaller than the first baby, but he definitely had the Malfoy facial features.

            “This one is Scorpius Abraxas Malfoy,” Draco said, still glued to the picture of his second son. He had been planning on naming the one with the most Malfoy features Scorpius and the raven haired baby was it. “And Hyperion Draco Malfoy for the other one.” He liked the name Hyperion and he especially liked that Harry had gone through the trouble of looking up a name that he would find suitable. He had just been too ill during the pregnancy to research names and he didn’t have the time now.

            “That is a good name for such a precious being. He is the most wonderful person I’ve seen since Lily died,” Severus replied.

            “Alright, Hyperion Draco it is,” Draco confirmed with a smile.

            By this point Severus was dead on his feet; Druella noticed and ordered, “Off to bed with you now Severus! I’ll watch my grandson and great grandson while you rest.”

            Severus agreed, but asked Druella to come get him if they needed anything and assured them that he was just going to lie down in the spare bed in the nursery. A few minutes after Severus left, Draco started yawning, so Druella sent him off to sleep as well. She took Baby Hyperion, a basinet, and a nappy bag down the hall to her own room, so that Draco could sleep peacefully.

            Druella only woke Draco two hours later, because it was time to feed Hyperion again. And while he was awake, he might as well pump milk for Scorpius, so he hooked up the breast pump to the other side. The breast pump held itself and he held Hyperion with his left arm, leaving his right hand free for his grandmother to push a glass of water into. He got the hint and drank his two glasses of water while he waited for Hyperion to finish feeding.

            By this time Druella, having been up half the night, was tired herself and Draco was feeling a bit more rested after his nap. Thus Druella went off to bed and Draco stayed up with the baby. Hyperion spent most of the time sleeping, but the baby also made a very foul mess in his nappy that Draco had to clean. He changed the nappy and while he was at it, he changed the baby’s clothes and trimmed his finger nails. He even got little Hyperion’s dark grey eyes to open, which was the first time he had ever seen them. At that point he grabbed the camera, which Professor Snape had left lying on the desk, and snapped a photo.

            Hyperion fell asleep just before lunch time, so Draco put the baby in the remaining basinet and crawled into bed, before requesting that a house elf bring him lunch in bed. He was itching to get out of his room, but he was wary of going down the flight of stairs holding the baby when he was still recovering from the births. Thus he ate in bed and then banished the tray to the kitchens for the house elves to clean. Then he went into the en suite bathroom to see about brushing his teeth and fixing his hair.

            Draco’s usual grooming spell was not working, because his hair had grown too long during the pregnancy. He went through his books until he found the one of grooming charms and was just reading through the directions on cutting hair, when Hyperion started crying softly. He put down the book and rushed back into the bedroom to get his baby. He fed Hyperion and expressed milk from the other side. Hyperion fell back asleep while he was burping the baby, so Draco laid Hyperion down in the basinet and returned to the bathroom to cut his hair.

            The blond hair wasn’t cut as perfectly as when his mother did it, but it was better than it was before. Draco recast his grooming charm, leaving the mess for the house elves. He couldn’t remember the last time he had taken a bath, so he took one now and spent a long time lying back relaxing in the tub. Then he got out, dressed in trousers instead of pajama bottoms for a change, and went back over to the basinet to check on the baby.

            Hyperion needed another nappy change and woke up when Draco went to change it. He wanted the baby to sleep tonight, so he made an effort to talk to Hyperion and try to get him to stay awake for a bit.

            Narcissa, having just woken up, went straight to Draco’s room to check on him and the baby. She entered the room and found her son rubbing the little blond baby on the back.

            Draco looked up at his mother and said, “Hello mother.”

            “Hello Draco; I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. How is my little grandson doing today?”

            “Hyperion is doing fine. Can you tell me more about how Scorpius is?” Draco asked hopefully.

            “You decided to name them Hyperion and Scorpius then?” Narcissa asked with approval.

            “Yes, but please tell me about Scorpius.”

            “Alright, but let me take my lunch in here with you then,” Narcissa said, before calling a house elf to bring her some lunch.

            Narcissa sat at the desk with a bowl of tomato and cream soup and a cheese sandwich while she told Draco all about the muggle hospital and the machines they had Scorpius hooked up to. She told him about the nurses and healers and what they said about the baby’s prognosis for release and about the birth defects. Draco laughed when he heard what the muggles thought of the Peverell penis, but he blanched in horror as his mother told him about Scorpius’ bowed leg and turned in foot.

            “It’s nothing St. Mungo’s can’t fix,” Narcissa assured her son.

            Draco tried not to get too upset about the malformed leg, given that there was nothing he could do about it right now. Instead he told his mother to tell Scorpius that he loved him, before Narcissa left, heading off to the hospital.

 

* * *

 

 

            Harry and Hermione were eating a meager breakfast alone in their tent now that Ron had abandoned them, when, for the first time since before Dumbledore’s death, Harry felt his coin burning in the pouch he kept around his neck. He threw down his spoon and quickly read Draco’s message, glad that he still kept the coin on him every day; he liked to send Draco little messages, even if Draco never replied.

            “My parchment, Hermione! Get your bag, I need the parchment Draco left me,” Harry exclaimed. He had considered keeping his parchment in the pouch around his neck, but he had been worried the snitch from Dumbledore would crumple it and the pouch wasn’t wide enough to fit the parchment, unless he folded it and he hadn’t wanted to crease it, because it had been from Draco. Thus he had stored it in Hermione’s handbag with all his other things.

            Hermione jumped up and Harry followed. It took several minutes for them to find the handbag and retrieve the parchment, but then they had and Harry was reading it. “He had the babies, Hermione!”

            “That’s great, Harry!” Hermione replied.

            Harry’s excitement quickly turned to dread as he read the rest of the short message. “Narcissa left him alone and took the second baby to a muggle-hospital.”

            “What happened?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “Well get your coin and ask him!” Hermione replied, feeling frantic over the news and knowing that there was nothing she could do to help from this far away. They didn’t even know where Draco was.

            Harry ran back to the breakfast table, grabbed his coin from where he’d left it, and tapped it, making it ask what was wrong with the baby.

            The message that appeared on the parchment next made Harry feel like his heart was being ripped out and stomped on by angry trolls. “He wasn’t breathing Hermione! And I need a bottle of ink and a quill!”

            “He wasn’t breathing? Is he breathing now? Is he going to be okay? Merlin help him,” Hermione replied frantically, while Harry ran back to the side of the tent with Hermione’s bag and began searching through it for ink and a quill.

            “I won’t know until I get a quill,” Harry said, pulling out half a bottle of ink and going back in for a quill.

            “Yes, a quill. We need a quill, Harry!” Hermione shouted uselessly.

            Harry pulled out a quill, but it was broken and he had to go back in for another. “Calm down Hermione! We need to stay calm and find out what happened. We can’t know what we can do to help if I can’t find a quill,” Harry said while he searched for a quill. “Just sit down and breathe, will you?”

            “Yes, sit and breathe,” Hermione repeated, doing as instructed.

            Harry finally found a functioning quill and ran back over to the kitchen table. He fumbled the lid of the ink, due to his nerves. His hand shook as he wrote his reply asking for more information. He paused for a minute, absentmindedly pressing his quill to his lip and creating an ink stain, before adding that he loved and missed Draco and wanted to be there with Draco, hoping that Draco might just let him. He and Hermione could pack up the tent and apparate over to the continent and then be wherever Draco was by dinner time at the latest; Hermione couldn’t apparate anywhere she hadn’t been before, but she had been to France. They could find a train to take them closer and maybe even a muggle taxi. He wanted to be there to comfort Draco and see his son and maybe he and Hermione could help Narcissa with the muggle doctors.

            The words Harry wrote on the parchment disappeared moments after he had written them as the parchment blanked itself and another moment later Draco’s message appeared.

            “He’s on a muggle breathing machine and the muggles need to keep him for a week,” Harry told Hermione, even though Hermione was right there looking over his shoulder and probably reading Draco’s messages first hand.

            “Muggle technology for treating premature babies has gotten really good, Harry. Muggles are beginning to save babies born up to three months early. Draco was almost full term, so the baby wasn’t nearly that early; they’ll probably have no problems healing him,” Hermione said, trying to concentrate on the facts instead of freaking out again.

            Harry murmured some reassurance to Hermione and then wrote a short sentence of reassurance back to Draco, citing what Hermione had just told him. Then he asked about what the babies looked like and were named.

            “One has blond hair and looks like my mother and the other has black hair and looks like Draco. No names yet,” Harry said out loud for Hermione.

            “That’s great! Really brilliant,” Hermione said, attempting to stay calm, but she could just imagine a little raven haired Malfoy baby hooked up to machines in a muggle-hospital.

            “I wonder how Narcissa knows what my mum looked like. Do you think she knew my mum?” Harry asked, thinking back to the time he had shown Narcissa and Draco his family photo album. Narcissa hadn’t mentioned knowing his mum then. “I showed her pictures of my parents; do you think she could possibly remember my mum’s features that well from a photo?”

            “I’m not sure. Maybe Narcissa just assumed that he looks like your mum, because he doesn’t look like anyone else? If he looked like your dad, well they would just say he looked like you, because you look like your dad. So if he doesn’t look like the Malfoys and doesn’t look like you, then it’s pretty easy to conclude that he must look like your mum,” Hermione replied.

            “Yeah, maybe. But what if Narcissa did know my mum? The Malfoys aren’t that much older than my parents; Narcissa was probably still at Hogwarts when my parents started there. Narcissa really is nothing like Lucius, so maybe she remembered her…my mum, I mean.” Harry liked to think that the polite woman he’d spent time with in the room of requirement was the only side to Narcissa Malfoy. All of the blood purity Death Eater nonsense, would then have had to come from Lucius and Narcissa had only gone along with her husband and not actively participated in it.

            “It’s a possibility, Harry. You better write him something back.”

            “Yeah, you’re right,” Harry said before writing his reply to Draco and mentioning the name he had found.

            There had been a lot of clear misses when it came to wizarding genealogy books and potential names when Harry was looking through the library at Grimmauld Place. He had found a particularly horrid book of all of the dark accomplishments of the Black family in the sixteenth century. After mistakenly reading a disgusting bit about muggle torture, Hermione had stepped in and found a proper book with decent wizards. There were only a few Potters mentioned in it, but among them was Hyperion Potter. Hyperion had invented a potion to ameliorate the common cold back in the thirteen hundreds; the potion was long since out dated, ever since the much better pepper up potion was invented, but his name was forever recorded in one dust covered and heavily aged book at Grimmauld Place.

            Harry liked the name Hyperion and thought it had a nice ring to it, plus it had come from a decent wizard who had helped alleviate suffering. The meaning behind the name was also nice, given that Hyperion was the father of the sun, the moon, and the dawn. His sons and Draco were everything to him and represented the sun, the moon, and the stars, as the muggles say; replace stars for dawn and it was pretty much the same thing. And given the complete dearth of alternative acceptable Potter names, it really was a no brainer.

            Harry leapt out of his seat half a foot as he read that Draco liked the name. Then he sat back down to fulfill Draco’s request for more information, before asking again if they could come over. “It really wouldn’t hurt us to spend a couple of days with them. I could keep Draco company and you could go with Narcissa to the muggle-hospital. Maybe we could even brainstorm with Narcissa and get another idea about where we can search for the next horcrux.”

            “At the very least, we know You-Know-Who has been to their house and they might have a portrait we can interrogate for information,” Hermione suggested. “Say if Lucius’ father had a portrait at Malfoy Manor, which I’m sure he does, and another one wherever they’re staying now, then just maybe he might be able to help us.”

            “Yeah, that’s brilliant Hermione!” Harry replied enthusiastically. Right now they were plum out of leads and anything sounded brilliant; it didn’t even matter that Lucius’ father was probably a racist Death Eater supporter and would be disinclined to give them helpful information. For a second he thought that a Malfoy portrait would be more likely to send them on a wild goose trail and report their presence at Draco and Narcissa’s hideout to Voldemort. But with the news of his son’s medical problems and their setbacks in the horcrux hunt, he couldn’t think about any more depressing thoughts or he was going to break down. Instead, he tried to stay hopeful.

            But then Draco’s reply had appeared declining his request to come over, explaining that it was an impossibility because Draco wasn’t the secret keeper, and then mentioning that Draco’s grandmother was there. “His grandmum? I forgot about her. Do you think she’s been there all along? Do you think maybe they’re at her house? Where does she even live?” Harry asked. He didn’t really expect Hermione to have all the answers, but maybe she had an idea of where they could get the answers from.

            “Is this Narcissa’s or Lucius’ mum?” Hermione asked, already going back for her handbag.

            “Narcissa’s mum, I believe,” Harry said, remembering that Draco had told him that only Narcissa’ mum was still alive.

            “Well if that’s the case, Draco probably took her in to get her away from Bellatrix. With Narcissa in hiding and Tonks’ mum disowned, Bellatrix would be the only one looking after the old woman,” Hermione said, coming back over with her arm deep inside her handbag as she searched for something. “But maybe we can interrogate Phineas Nigellus Black’s portrait.”

            “Yeah, just let me write back to Draco,” Harry said, thinking about what to write, even though Draco had already said he had to go and he wasn’t sure the message would be seen.

            “Don’t go. Who is your secret keeper? Is it your grandmum?” Harry wrote, before looking up and nodding at Hermione that he was ready for the portrait.

            Hermione had the portrait out and said portrait was covered in a black cloth, so that Phineas Nigellus Black couldn’t report any information on them back to Snape, who had access to Phineas’ other portrait in the headmaster’s office.

            “Professor Black!” Hermione called.

            “Yes? Who is it? What do you want?” the portrait asked.

            “Where does Narcissa Malfoy’s mum live?” Hermione asked.

            “Why should I tell you? What do you want? You still haven’t told me who you are.”

            “Just answer the question. Does she live in Britain?”

            “Yes, of course she lives in Britain! Or at least she did before she went missing last year.”

            “She’s missing?” This was a good sign.

            “Yes. First Narcissa disappeared and then her mother went too.”

            “Do you have any idea where they could’ve gone?”

            “No and if I did I wouldn’t tell you! I don’t even know who you are!”

            At that Hermione shoved the portrait back into her handbag. There were muffled shouts of complaint from the portrait, but they were cut off when Hermione snapped the bag closed. Harry looked back at his parchment, which was now blank; he was disappointed that Draco hadn’t written him back, but he decided he would keep the parchment out in case Draco wrote again later.

            “Well that answers that: Narcissa’s mum is with them, but we still have no idea where they could be,” Hermione said.

            “At least we know Draco isn’t completely alone with the first baby when Narcissa is out checking on the second,” Harry conceded. “Merlin, I hope she doesn’t get caught leaving the safe house.”

            “She won’t get caught as long as she stays in the muggle world.”

            “Going to a muggle-hospital was shear brilliance.”

            “I’m a bit surprised that a Malfoy would’ve thought of that, with all their blood purity tripe. Can you picture a stuffy pureblood walking into a muggle establishment and asking for help?” Hermione asked, stifling a laugh.

            “No,” Harry agreed and laughed, mostly because they really needed to relieve some tension right now and humor was one way of going about it. “I bet the Malfoys don’t even bother taking muggle studies.”

            “Probably not. She probably showed up in her robes and didn’t even know how muggles were lighting the ceiling, not to mention all of the electronic equipment.”

            “Yeah, I bet she was horrified to see what the muggles did to my son; they probably have him on an IV and some huge machine to breath for him,” Harry said suddenly turning sullen as he thought about the critical situation his son was currently in and how there was nothing he could do

to help.

            “Oh Harry, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean…”

            “It’s okay Hermione, I know. But just think what would’ve happened if Narcissa hadn’t thought to take him to the muggles for help? My son would be dead right now,” Harry said with a sob as the tears started leaking from his eyes.

            “I know; it’s so unbearably awful,” Hermione agreed, throwing her arms around Harry and hugging him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now Harry knows and the babies have names. Next chapter Draco will be contacting Harry again…


	7. Chapter 7

            Lucius was exhausted as he waited for his wife to return, while watching his newborn grandson. That was an improvement from an hour earlier, when he was tired _and_ hungry. The muggles had provided him with a sandwich and thankfully hadn’t even asked him to pay for it; he didn’t have any muggle money and didn’t know a safe place to trade in galleons to get some. But when he mentioned payment the nurse said not to mind that, because the sandwiches were provided for free to patients in the maternity ward.

            The nurses’ one request was that Lucius eat the sandwich outside the NHDU. He didn’t want to leave his grandson alone with muggles, even for a minute, but by that point he was starving and he figured that nothing much could go wrong in the short time it took to eat quickly. There wasn’t much he could do medically for his grandson, because he knew fewer healing spells than Narcissa and he was relying mainly on the muggles for treating the baby. Mostly what he was there to do was to make sure that the muggles didn’t try some outlandish procedure on the baby and that they didn’t mix up his grandson with some muggle baby; but muggles couldn’t complete a procedure in the time he was out of the room and his grandson already looked distinctive enough that he was sure he could spot him out of a whole line of babies. His grandson had his facial structure and had the look of fine breeding, even with the black hair; besides, Narcissa’s father and sister had had black hair too.

            Lucius had eaten the muggle sandwich and he’d enjoyed it too, since it contained foods they didn’t have in their storeroom at the villa. By the time Narcissa finally arrived, he was back in front of the incubator watching his grandson sleep. He greeted her with a hug and she beamed at him with a smile that could only be possible with proper sleep.

            “How is he doing?” Narcissa asked in French, looking over at her grandson.

            “Brilliant. While you were gone the little champion whizzed all over the place. They had to get a new incubator to switch him over to, while they cleaned out the last one. I had to show them how to change a proper cloth nappy. They don’t use the cloth ones and it took them an hour to scrounge up a pack of them, before I could show them how to make sure the tip was tucked in just right so that it wouldn’t happen again,” Lucius answered proudly, also in French. He had even put on a pair of those awful muggle gloves and muggle hospital clothes to do it. “What news do you have from home?”  
            “Our son has finally chosen names for the babies. This little one is Scorpius,” Narcissa answered.

            “That’s an excellent name,” Lucius replied.

            “We’ll update his incubator with the new name,” the nurse said, getting a marker and making the new name card.

            “Go home and get some rest, dear, but do try to relieve me before nine,” Narcissa said.

            Lucius agreed and went home. Narcissa took his chair.

            “Your son must be a Farscape fan,” the nurse said, changing the baby’s name in his charts, now that the incubator was already updated.

            “What’s Farscape?” Narcissa asked.

            “An American scifi show. My little sister watches it and the villain alien is named Scorpius.”

            “Oh, I’ve never heard of it.”

            “Not many people have; it’s sort of hard to get here in France, but my little sister is obsessed with that sort of show.”

            “I’ll have to ask my son if that was where he got the name from.”

            “What’s the other baby’s name? Scorpius’ twin?”

            “Hyperion.”

            “Now that _has_ to be a name from one of those scifi shows. I don’t watch them enough to know all their names, but that name fits in with those shows.”

            “I’m sure you’re right,” Narcissa lied, because it was easier to let the muggle think her son was into whatever it was the nurse was talking about than to reveal the truth.

            “I’ll have to ask my sister the next time I see her if she knows of a character named Hyperion.”

            “Yes, please do. My son’s girlfriend expressed more milk for Scorpius. My son wants me to be sure his little man is getting breast milk,” Narcissa said, changing the subject and pulling out the full bottle of milk from her large handbag.

            “Oh my, that is a lot of milk; Scorpius hasn’t even finished the last bottle your husband brought. Is the mother really expressing all this milk and having enough for the other baby?” the nurse asked, taking the bottle and labeling it, before putting it into the nearby refrigerator.

            “Yes. She feeds Hyperion on one side, pumps the other side, and sends it in. That’s what came out.”

            “Well that’s excellent news for your grandsons; they’ll have plenty of breast milk and breast is best. Scorpius is too little to drink all this milk as quickly as you’re bringing it in, so I recommend freezing the extra and then just letting it thaw out when you need it.”

            “How much is that tube feeding him?”

            “Half an ounce every hour, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be increasing it soon.”

            “How long will he have to be fed through a tube?” Narcissa asked, not even understanding why her grandson was being fed through a tube.

            “Until we can take the respirator out. We can’t bottle feed him with the respirator in.”

            Narcissa settled in to watch and wait. Scorpius soiled his nappy, which was the big shocker of the afternoon. And when Scorpius stayed awake after the nappy change, the nurse let Narcissa hold him, provided she change into muggle-hospital clothes, which she did. The nurse even took a picture of them and promised to give it to her once she had it developed. And while Narcissa fawned over the tiny newborn, Scorpius opened his eyes and she got the first look into a pair of light grey eyes that matched her son’s and husband’s.

            “Can you take another of his face with his eyes open? I want to show my son that Scorpius has his eyes; he’s never seen his eyes before,” Narcissa said.

            The nurse agreed and took another photo, this one a close up on Scorpius’ face.

            While Narcissa was at the hospital, Lucius, Severus, and Druella were sleeping at the villa. Draco was up off and on with Baby Hyperion, but mostly he took it easy, rested as much as possible, and tried to keep to the two glasses of water he was supposed to be drinking every two hours. He now had quite a few bottles of milk under stasis charms sitting on his desk. Hyperion drank a lot, but Draco seemed to be producing enough milk for two Hyperions.

            Draco quickly became lonely now that he was once again left alone with just the one baby. He began thinking of Harry and then of Scorpius and what the muggles had said about his baby’s leg. There had never been any birth defects in either the Malfoy or the Black families. He could only think of one reason why there would be something wrong with his son and that was because Harry’s Weasley friend had punched him in the stomach. Apparently the smaller of the two babies had been seriously injured by Weasley’s attack.

            The Protean charmed parchment was back in his nightstand drawer, but it only took a second for Draco to pull it out again and prepare his quill. He wrote, “Mother just got back from the hospital. The muggle healers said the baby has a deformed left leg and foot. It’s too thin and bowed, and the foot is turned in. This is Weasley’s fault.”

            It was only a minute later that Harry wrote back, “Is he alright? What are the doctors going to do to fix it?”

            “They’re not going to fix it; we’re going to have to wait until after the war to seek treatment. You better end this soon so it doesn’t interfere with his development.”

            “I’ll try. I’m sooo sorry this happened. I stand by my promise that I won’t let Ron near him.”

            “Good, see that you don’t.”

            It took more than five minutes for the next reply and Draco began to wonder if Harry was still there. But then, “How bad does the leg look?” appeared on the parchment.

            “I didn’t notice it during the glimpse I saw of him, but apparently the muggle-healer said it’s smaller than his penis, and he doesn’t think the baby will be able to walk like that. They also thought there was a defect in the penis, because he’s a Peverell boy.”

            “Is your mum going to be able to cast the vanishing spell on them?”

            “Vanishing spell?”

            “For the waste?”

            “Oh, I’ll have to ask her. I’ve just been letting the first baby poop. As long as the second baby is with the muggles, he’ll have to stay pooping,” Draco wrote, thinking that that was a good point. Both boys were Peverells and as such they would need the permanent feces vanishing charm placed on them.

            “What if she can’t do it? The muggles won’t be able to fix it.”

            “You lasted sixteen years without an infection; the boys will be fine for a few months until you end the war.”

            “Yeah, you’re right. I love you. Can you tell the boys I love them?”

            “I’ll tell the first one. I love you too.”

            “I’ll keep this parchment out; write me anytime you want to talk. I’ve missed you so much and I’m so glad to hear from you.”

            “How is the war going then?”

            “Not so good. We found one piece of the puzzle, but we haven’t been able to destroy it yet. Ron left us. Hermione and I haven’t been able to come up with any new leads. We’re at a dead end with nowhere else to search.”

            “What are you looking for?”

            “Items of value to Voldemort. He has an obsession with the four founders, so any item that belonged to one of them might be it.”

            “I didn’t see any relics from the founders when I was with him.”

            “What about places he might hide something very valuable to him? Like the diary he gave your dad to keep, but your dad gave to Ginny to open the Chamber of Secrets.”

            “My father is currently out of his favor. Professor Snape and Aunt Bella are his current favorites.”

            “I don’t think Snape has been a favorite long enough to have one of these items. Where would your aunt hide something valuable? Where does she live?”

            “She lives with Him in the guesthouse at Malfoy Manor. Uncle Rody’s mother hates her and won’t let them back in her home, but Uncle Rody still has control of the family’s vaults.”

            “I know he’s your dad, but opening your home up to Voldemort and his Death Eaters?”

            “Father isn’t with Him; hasn’t been since a few weeks after he was released from Azkaban.”

            “You mean escaped.”

            “No, he was released. The dementors let him go and he walked out the front door.”

            “Alright, but where did he go? I heard he was missing; is he with you?”

            “He went into hiding. I wrote him and told him to bail and he did. He gathered some supplies and left immediately; he’ll lay low until the end of the war and then we’ll contact him.”

            “But then why is Voldemort in your house?”

            “Father agreed to let Him in when he was in Azkaban. The Dark Lord already had access and Father didn’t bother taking the time to kick Him out when he left. Feel free to kick him out anytime you want.”

            “Huh?”

            “You’re a Malfoy now; you have access to the Manor. The house elves and wards will obey you first.”

            “That’s great! I’m sure that will come in handy during the final confrontation, but I can’t do that until I’ve found all of the objects.”

            “Baby is crying; got to go,” Draco wrote, hearing Hyperion wake up. He fed, burped and changed his baby and expressed more milk for the other baby.       

            Grandmother Druella was the first one to wake and she came into Draco’s room to talk to him, while Hyperion slept off and on. Mostly his grandmother alternated between telling him stories about the adventures she got into when she was young and criticizing the latest Minister, the Ministry, and the Daily Prophet, even though all three were now under Death Eater control. Everything was better back in her day when she could buy a crate full of pumpkin juice for a knut.

            Draco and Druella had dinner together and they were just finishing up when Severus woke up and joined them. Draco asked his old professor to cast the excrement vanishing charm on Hyperion and Severus agreed to do it after dinner.

 

* * *

 

 

            Harry and Hermione were having a very solemn day in their tent after learning the news about the second baby. Harry would have brief moments of joy as he contemplated that he was a dad, that his first born was healthy, and that Draco was safe and alive in hiding. But those moments of joy were quickly squelched by thoughts of the second baby’s precarious position in a muggle hospital, not safely in hiding, and not even breathing on his own.

            Neither Hermione nor Harry had had much of an appetite for lunch, nor had they gotten much research done. They spent the day alternating between sitting, standing, and pacing while they thought of Draco and the babies. Neither of them had moved the Protean charmed parchment from the table and they hadn’t touched the quill and pot of ink either, except for to close the ink so that it didn’t dry out.

            Harry was pacing back and forth in the tiny tent when he noticed a flicker of black from the parchment. He quickly ran over to the parchment, calling for Hermione as he went, and read Draco’s new message.

            “What is it?” Hermione asked, getting up and joining Harry at the small table.

            “The second baby has a deformed leg; Draco said it’s Ron’s fault,” Harry answered, still in disbelief as he silently read the parchment a second and then a third time, before it blanked itself. He reopened the ink and dipped his quill in, preparing to write back, but then he paused as he realized he didn’t know what to write.

            “Well is he otherwise alright? What are the doctors going to do to fix it? Surgery maybe?” Hermione asked.

            Harry shortened Hermione’s questions and asked them of Draco. Moments later Draco wrote back that healing the deformity was going to have to wait on Harry defeating Voldemort.

            Harry wrote back that he would try to defeat Voldemort quickly, that he was sorry this happened, and he reaffirmed his earlier promise not to ever let Ron near the baby.

            “No, you can’t do that! Ron is your best friend! He made a mistake, but you don’t even know this deformity was caused by him; sometimes these things just happen.”

            “I already told Draco when he was still worried he’d lose the babies over this that I wouldn’t let Ron near him or the babies again. I won’t have Draco living in fear of another attack and besides, just look at how mental Ron is! He left us and went back to his mummy and daddy when we’re in the middle of the most important mission of our lives! I’ve just become a dad for the first time and you don’t see me walking out on my duties.”

            “Yes, well Ron is an absolute prat, but he apologized for attacking Draco. He promised that he would never hurt him again. He didn’t even know Draco was pregnant at the time and he certainly didn’t know you two were dating.”

            “Don’t defend him Hermione! He walked out on you just as much as he did me! And before he went, he said all those awful things about Draco and that Draco abandoned me. He still doesn’t approve of my relationship with him; he even said I should take the babies and leave Draco, for Merlin’s sake!”

            “So what does that mean? When this is over, are you not going to be friends with Ron anymore?”

            “I don’t know Hermione,” Harry said sullenly. “I really haven’t thought that far ahead. But, if we are friends, Ron won’t be permitted over to my house or to be anywhere my children are. Even if I was considering forgiving Ron before, I just can’t let him near the babies, especially not now that I know the second one has a physical deformity as a result. Merlin Hermione, it’s his leg; what if he never walks?”

            “He will. Once you get him to St. Mungo’s, they’ll be able to fix it. Magic can fix almost anything.”

            “Magic couldn’t fix Mad-Eye up. I think it all depends on how bad it is.”

            “Ask him then,” Hermione said and Harry did, writing the question out on the parchment for Draco.

            Hermione giggled as she read the answer Draco sent back, but she knew this was not a laughing matter, so she stifled her giggles with her hand.

            Harry noticed Hermione’s giggles and he too found the idea of the muggles coming across a Peverell baby and thinking the penis was deformed…well it was funny. Harry was very tense and he needed the laugh. Hermione removed her hand and joined in. The moment of frivolity didn’t last long as the gravity of the situation sank in.

            “Either he has one giant penis or he had one very tiny leg,” Harry said.

            “You have to keep positive Harry; there _is_ a leg there and proper wizarding healers will be able to fix it up and straighten it out.”

            “The deformity couldn’t be that severe if Draco didn’t notice it.”

            “But he wasn’t breathing when Draco saw him, so maybe Draco didn’t even look down there,” Hermione replied, bringing them down, despite her earlier insistence that they needed to stay positive.

            “Yeah, if my newborn baby wasn’t breathing, I’d be looking at the face and the chest and I might miss the leg,” Harry added, before turning back to the parchment and reading Draco’s message again.

            Then it occurred to Harry that his sons were Peverell wizards and would need the special waste vanishing charm that Snape had performed on him. Would Narcissa be able to perform the charm? He didn’t know, so he asked Draco. He went back and forth with Draco on the subject a few times. Draco agreed to ask Narcissa and assured Harry that even if Narcissa couldn’t perform the charm, the boys would be alright without it for a while.

            Harry told Draco he loved Draco and asked Draco to tell the boys he loved them too. Draco agreed to tell the first son, which only made Harry’s heart sink as he once again thought of his second son fighting for life in a muggle-hospital. But while he had Draco talking to him again for the first time in over five months, he took the opportunity to encourage Draco to write to him more often, especially now that is seemed the parchment could deliver unlimited numbers of messages both ways.

            Draco asked Harry about the war and he answered back with minimum detail, leaving out what exactly they were searching for. Draco seemed willing to help Harry out and even offered up some information on Voldemort, such as that Voldemort and Bellatrix were living in the guesthouse at Malfoy Manor. When it came time and the penultimate horcrux had been destroyed, he now knew that they could go to Malfoy Manor and confront Voldemort. Nagini, the last horcrux, would have to be killed first, but maybe Hermione could do that while he fought with his arch nemesis.

            Harry also learned that Bellatrix and Snape were the leading Death Eaters at the moment, making them prime candidates for being the guardians of horcruxes. But Snape had been a spy and up until Dumbledore’s death, no one had known his true loyalties lay with Voldemort. It seemed unlikely that Snape himself would be trusted with a horcrux. Bellatrix, on the other hand, was a prime suspect. He was disappointed to learn that Bellatrix lived with Voldemort, which meant they couldn’t break into her home to look for horcruxes, without alerting Voldemort.

            The one other lead Draco was able to give Harry was that Bellatrix and her husband had a family vault, presumably in Gringotts. Hermione promised that she would try to look into it and so Harry turned back to Draco and the charmed parchment.

            Harry couldn’t help but criticize Lucius for letting Voldemort and Bellatrix live in Malfoy Manor. The response he got back from Draco was shocking: Lucius had abandoned Voldemort after a simple letter from Draco. He never thought that Voldemort’s right hand man would turn against Voldemort with nothing more than a letter; he had seen evidence of Lucius’ desertion through his link to Voldemort and he thought that Draco must’ve been behind it, but he had imagined that Draco had written a great many pleading letters and had worked very hard to bring Lucius around to deserting Voldemort. But now Draco would have him believe that it had only taken _one_ letter from Draco for Lucius to abandon his own home and go into hiding and stayed in hiding all of this time. Lucius clearly wasn’t the one-dimensional follower he had taken Lucius for. If nothing else, Lucius loved Draco.

            Unbelievably, that shocking news was topped when Draco told Harry that because of the marriage, Harry was now a Malfoy and the Manor and the Manor’s elves would recognize him as the proper owner, over Voldemort. Voldemort was a guest in the Manor and Harry was a owner. He began fantasizing about showing up at Malfoy Manor, wand blazing, and over taking Voldemort, Bellatrix, and any other Death Eaters present, with the help of the house, the house elves, and Hermione.

            Harry’s fantasy was temporally interrupted by Draco’s message that the first baby was crying and that Draco had to go. He was disappointed that the conversation was ending, but he hoped that Draco would contact him again and he and Hermione now had loads of new things to think about, so he turned back to his fantasy of walking into Malfoy Manor, finding all of the remaining horcruxes, and taking care of business in one final battle.

            “Hermione, do you think You-Know-Who might have both horcruxes on him? If Bellatrix and Nagini are with him and they’re all at Malfoy Manor, where else could they be?” Harry asked.

            “It’s a possibility, but Draco also mentioned the Lestrange family vault and keep in mind, we are still _no_ closer to actually destroying a horcrux than we were before. We should have a way to destroy the horcruxes _before_ we go to Malfoy Manor. I know you destroyed the first horcrux with a basilisk fang, but we don’t have one and we have _no_ idea how to get another. Dumbledore wanted us to have the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy the horcruxes, but we don’t know where it is or how to get it,” Hermione replied, bringing Harry back down to Earth.

            “Yeah, you’re right. It’d be better to check the vault for horcruxes first, find the sword, and then take the battle to the Manor doorstep. Merlin I wish I knew what was going on in that house.”

            “I think we will have to wait to find out. When we get there, we’ll have to scope the place out. If the house elves obey you, then that will make it so much easier.”

            “Now look who’s talking about using house elf labor,” Harry teased.

            Harry and Hermione continued on in their discussion of their new horcrux and Voldemort leads and began to put together a plan of attack. Harry found himself staring at the Protean charmed parchment as he spoke with Hermione. He was halfway through a sentence about the Lestrange family vault when something occurred to him. “-er, yeah, so as I was saying, the vault being heavily guarded or protected would be a good thing, because then it’d be more likely that Voldemort actually left a horcrux there. But I just thought of something different. Something about Draco,” Harry said.

            “What is it?”

            “Well I didn’t know how that parchment worked before, but basically it works like our coins do, except instead of tapping with our wands we write out messages with our quills.”

            “Yes, so?”

            “So, that means that Draco didn’t write his farewell letter to me _before_ Dumbledore died. He left a charmed piece of parchment for me before it happened, but he didn’t write the message until sometime _later_! He didn’t know Snape was going to kill Dumbledore after all! He probably just left to have dinner with his mum and happened to be safe else-where when he found out about Snape. Ron was wrong; Merlin I wish Ron was here so I could rub that in his face and then hex the daylights out of him.”

            Harry suddenly realized why he hadn’t wanted to keep the parchment on his persons in the moleskin pouch around his neck. It was because he believed Ron that that parchment signified Draco’s betrayal, or at least Draco had known of Snape’s future betrayal, before it happened. But now that he knew that Draco hadn’t known and that Draco hadn’t betrayed him, this charmed parchment was not the horrible reminder of being betrayed by his husband on the day after his wedding. The parchment was now the last link to his family and a symbol of what was positive in his life, not what was negative. And in that moment, he decided to start carrying the parchment around with his galleon in the pouch around his neck.

            “You’re right Harry; Draco probably didn’t know and he probably didn’t write that message until hours after you left,” Hermione replied.

            “Probably? No, absolutely I’m right. Draco has never done any of the suspicious stuff Ron accused him of. In fact, I’m starting to think I only started to believe that Draco said he _already_ had the middle room cleared of bunk beds and not that we were _going to_ clear the middle room of bunk beds, well, it’s because Ron kept telling me that that was what Draco had said. But Ron wasn’t even there to hear it!”

            “Well I said all along that Draco wasn’t to blame for what happened; it was Snape who did it,” Hermione agreed. “And Snape was ordered to do it by Professor Dumbledore himself.”

            “Not this again,” Harry said with a groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The muggles are going to start growing suspicious next chapter…


	8. Chapter8

            Severus cast the excrement vanishing charm on Hyperion Tuesday evening. Druella went off to bed and Draco and Severus covered the night shift at the villa. Lucius covered the night shift at the hospital with Scorpius. Narcissa slept. Wednesday morning Narcissa went to the hospital and Lucius came home with news: the muggles wanted Draco and Hyperion to come to the hospital today for examination and questioning.

            Lucius was exhausted, so he went off to sleep, and Severus and Draco started going over their story to tell the muggles. Severus had the story all worked out, having discussed it with Narcissa months ago. All Severus had to do was get Draco to the point where Draco knew the story inside and out. But by this point Draco was absolutely sick of being cooped up in his room, so he decided that they could do this just as easily outside. Severus was agreeable to the small delay, so they set to work moving their conversation downstairs.

            Draco went to the nursery and packed a nappy bag full of everything he could possibly need to care for a newborn and sent Severus to the baby storeroom to find the stroller and the baby carrier that went on top. It was a floating twin stroller with a gold and silver turtle print on top of indigo fabric. Since there was only one baby, Severus only unpacked one of the infant carseats that went on top; the carseats took a lot of work adjusting the buckles, so Severus only bothered doing the one.

            Draco put little Hyperion in the one carseat and hooked the nappy bag over the handle bar. He was just strapping Hyperion in when his nipples started leaking.  “Merlin!” he exclaimed as he looked down his robes and saw the wet marks.

            “Perhaps you should take the breast pump with you as well,” Severus said, noticing the problem.

            Draco peeled off his robes, grateful for the fact that he had trousers on underneath. He had specifically put trousers on underneath, because he was breast feeding and had to frequently expose his chest. “But I just fed Hyperion and I pumped for Scorpius while I did it,” he complained, pushing the stroller back into his room to get the breast pump and spare bottles.

            “The greatest period for milk production is in the days following the birth. Your body doesn’t know exactly how much milk to produce and sometimes it overshoots,” Severus said, following Draco.

            “But didn’t that book I read say that the milk was on a feedback loop, so if I make more than I use, my body will make less?” Draco asked, sitting down on his bed as he attached the breast pumps to each nipple, because they were both leaking.

            “Unfortunately the feedback loop doesn’t always work perfectly. If you don’t use the milk, your body may overcorrect and stop making enough milk. And in addition, the milk buildup is painful, so it is best to pump the extra and store it. If worse comes to worse and you consistently make too much and you build up a large supply of excess milk, you can store it and use it after you stop breast feeding. With two babies, it is unlikely that you’ll always have enough milk for both of them, so in all likelihood, the excess milk will get used up.”

            “Yeah, I guess. Is there any way we can still go downstairs while I’m pumping?” Draco asked.

            “Certainly. The pumping machine is portable and the pumps themselves will hold themselves in place, even with movement. If you go slowly and carefully, I see no reason why we can’t sit out on the heated patio,” Severus replied.

            “Can you get the baby then?” Draco asked as he grabbed the strap of the pumping machine and slung it over his shoulder.

            “Yes and I’ll just put the case of extra bottles in the basket on the carriage, so that we won’t have to come back for more bottles,” Severus said and he did.

            Severus pushed the stroller down the stairs, and since it was a magical floating stroller, it had no difficulty staying level as he went, floating smoothly along in front of them. Draco brought up the rear, with the breast pumps on his chest and carrying the pumping machine by the strap on his shoulder.

            Being the dead of winter, Severus stopped when they reached the sliding glass door to the patio and cast a warming charm on himself and the baby.

            “What are you doing? Isn’t the patio continuously warmed?” Draco asked.

            “Yes, the patio is heated, but it’s winter, Hyperion is a newborn baby, and the one heating charm will only heat the patio so much. I think a second heating charm should be sufficient,” Severus said.

            Draco agreed and then let Severus cast a heating charm specifically on Draco; not because he thought it would be too cold, but because he wasn’t wearing his robes, due to the breast pumps. Then the three of them went outside and Draco and Severus sat at the table on the already heated patio; Hyperion’s stroller rested by the side of the table where they both could easily reach it.

            “How much of the cover story do you remember?” Severus began.

            “Well I know that muggle men don’t give birth. I remember that the plan was to say I had a girlfriend who gave birth at home and refused to come in.”

            “Sometimes muggles steal babies, so muggles always check out the story when someone shows up with a baby and no mother. That’s why your parents are guarding Scorpius, so that no muggle tries to still him, and also why we must be so meticulous with our story. Sure we can confound one or two when it comes time to take Scorpius home, but the more we confound the larger the trace will be that we leave behind. There are a lot of muggles we will run into at the muggle-hospital and we cannot confound them all; we must convince the majority of them that things are as they seem.”

            “Alright. So what else have my parents told the muggles that I need to know?”

            “They gave specific names that you need to memorize, but it’s not just that: you need to know the cover story of your entire fake life. Where you were born. Where you live. Where you went to school. Where you met your girlfriend. What did you do on your first date. How did you fall in love. Why won’t she come in. Where is she. Who is she. You need to know the story of your lives.”

            “Alright, so tell me.”

            “Your name is Drake Malcolm. Your parents are Nancy and Lawrence Malcolm. You were born and raised in Wiltshire, but your family recently moved into the guesthouse that is associated with this property, which is _not_ under the fidelius charm. You went to a boarding school in Scotland named Loretto. There are two schools there, a Junior school and a Senior school. You and your girlfriend both attended the Senior school together since the age of twelve. You did not attend the Junior school, because for that you went to a small private school in Wiltshire. Your girlfriend’s name is Hermione Granger.”

            “What!?!” Draco asked, waking the baby.

            Severus picked Hyperion up and the baby quieted down, but remained awake. Hyperion didn’t open his eyes for more than a second at a time, but he did flail his little arms around and kick at the nightgown he was wearing. It was one of those nightgowns that folded over at the hands to form built in little mittens. These mitten flaps were pulled down, to protect the newborn from his own hands, even though Draco had already trimmed the nails. It was a blue nightgown with a golden snitch print and Hyperion looked very regal in it, at least Severus thought so.

            “The muggles are sure to check the story on the mother and if she’s not a real person, they’ll be suspicious sooner, rather than later. With Ms. Granger, we know the story fits and it might take them a week or more to check out our story,” Severus said, cuddling the baby to his chest.

            “And how exactly does Hermione fit?” Draco asked.

            “She is a real person and muggles will have records of her. She went away to boarding school with you. She is the same age as you. She is in hiding and her parents will not have seen or heard from her in months; not since right around the time when the pregnancy became impossible to hide. She has real parents who can be questioned and who will verify that their daughter is missing. She had muggle neighbors who can also be questioned. It fits.”

            “Fine, assuming I would go out with a mudblood _girl_ , what’s the rest of the story?” Draco asked. He didn’t like it, but Professor Snape had a point and he couldn’t think of any better choices.

            “We haven’t decided on the details of your dating history. Perhaps you can make the details similar to the details of yours and Potter’s relationship.”

            “Our first date was dinner in the room of requirement, looking out at the Pacific Ocean.”

            “So make that a picnic by the lake of your boarding school.”

            Draco and Severus spent the next hour going over the details of his supposed relationship with his girlfriend. Then Hyperion started fussing, so Draco took off one of the breast pumps to feed him and changed the glass collection bottles while he was at it. It was uncomfortable sitting up so straight while trying to breast feed, so they moved inside and he lounged on the sofa in the drawing room, while Severus pulled up an armchair. The baby fell asleep on his teat, so Draco handed Hyperion over to Severus to burp, while he reattached the breast pump.

            The hour of pumping didn’t seem to have helped, because if anything, Draco was producing _more_ milk now. It was gushing out of him in torrents and his pecks felt just as achingly full as before. “Isn’t there a faster setting on this thing?” he asked, indicating the breast pump.

            There was a higher setting. Severus summoned the instruction booklet, before turning it up and making the milk flow even faster. And since Draco was losing so much fluid, Severus made Draco drink several glasses of water and eat some ice cream, to keep his fluid and calorie intakes up. While Draco was eating and drinking, Severus noticed that Hyperion needed a nappy change and Draco was a bit shocked to see the professor changing a nappy; Severus didn’t appear to be efficient at it, but he was at least proficient. And then the glass bottles on the breast pump were full and had to be changed, so that too was handled before they could resume their discussion of their cover story.

            Since Severus was already holding Hyperion, he didn’t bother putting the sleeping baby down in the stroller. He held Hyperion closely as he went over the details about why the alleged mother, Hermione Granger, would refuse to go to the hospital to have the babies. She didn’t want them, didn’t want her parents to know, and she was hoping that it would all just go away if she gave the babies to Draco and his parents to raise. She would go back to her parents and pretend she was never pregnant and had never had premarital sex. It was all for religious reasons.

            Draco followed Professor Snape that far, but he had no knowledge regarding muggle religions or their inane morals. Thus the professor spent a great deal of time telling him about the religious beliefs of the Church of England and their imaginary deity, which for some reason he didn’t quite understand, ordered all of the children to be virgins until marriage. Sex before marriage and pregnancy outside of wedlock being frowned upon he could understand, because the same was true in pureblood culture, but why some old guy in the sky was involved…well he just hoped the muggles wouldn’t ask him that one, because he didn’t get it.

            Long before Severus was done with the lecture on muggle religion, the flow of milk leaving Draco’s chest thankfully slowed down to only a trickle. Draco gratefully removed the contraption and sat back on the sofa, pulling an afghan over him to cover up, all the while he kept listening to Severus speak about muggles and their silly religion.

            It was lunch time when Draco finally had a handle on muggle religion and for the first time in months, he took lunch in the dining room. Druella came down and ate with him, as did Severus, who conceded to putting the baby in the stroller.

            While they ate, Severus went over muggle facts, such as they used the type of electricity found in lightning bolts to power muggles machines that did everything for them that magic did for wizards. They had electric lamps in the ceiling providing bright white light even in the dead of night. They had electric felly-tones to transmit the sound of their voice so that they could carry conversations over a wide range. They had electronic picture boxes to entertain them and perform calculations for them. And almost every other type of machine imaginable was powered by electricity instead of magic in the muggle world.

            Draco was inordinately pleased to be eating at a proper table and he didn’t even mind that Professor Snape was giving him a crash course in muggle studies or that he was eating the same yogurt, cheese sandwich, and glass of milk that he had been given sooo many times before. At least the butternut squash and rich cream soup was almost new. Draco looked around the table to see that no one else had nearly as much food on their plate. Neither his grandmother nor his old professor had the bowl of yogurt on the side and he began to wonder why that was.

            “I’m not pregnant anymore; why are the elves still trying to fatten me up?” Draco asked, interrupting Professor Snape’s lecture on how muggles made parchment out of trees. He still had a bulging belly, although it was quickly receding and he certainly felt fat enough.

            “You are consuming a great number of calories when you express milk. You need to keep your food intake correspondingly high,” Severus said.

            “And you need to eat lots of nourishing food so your milk will have lots of nourishment for the babies too,” Druella added.

            Draco sighed and went back to eating his large meal and Professor Snape went back to his lecturing. Draco was just finishing off the last of his yogurt when Hyperion woke up crying. Draco took the baby back into the drawing room to feed again and he attached the breast pump to the other side while he was at it. He put the thing on the higher setting, so that he wouldn’t be there all day and was horrified to find that his milk was once again gushing forth from his body. Hyperion mustn’t have drunk enough again, because his pecks were still engorged when he was done. He handed the baby off to Severus, attached the other side of the pump, and changed the bottle from the side Hyperion hadn’t drunk from while he was at it.

            Severus burped and changed Hyperion, but he had been up with Draco and the baby several times during the night and he was now feeling it. He blinked his weary eyes and stifled a yawn. He looked over to Draco and found that the boy was reclining on the sofa with his eyes closed. Minutes later Draco started snoring, proving that he had indeed fallen asleep while pumping breast milk. The milk was still flowing and the bottles were still fairly empty, so Severus decided to leave him be.

            Taking the hint that it was nap time, Severus put a sleeping Hyperion into the stroller and strapped him in, before passing the stroller over to Druella and asking the old woman to watch her great grandson. Druella agreed and Severus went up to the nursery to take his nap in the spare bed.

 

* * *

 

 

            Lucius woke up around three thirty in the afternoon and was back at the muggle-hospital by four. When he made it to the NHDU, Narcissa took him down the hall and into a waiting room for the use of muggle families.

            “The muggle-Aurors have gotten more impatient. I had one who called himself an inspector question me. He said he wants to see Drake and the other baby _today_ and preferably the mother too, or he’s going out to our residence to speak to them. A muggle-healer was with him and said that he really does need to examine the other baby today. I had to agree to get them when you came back,” Narcissa told him.

            “Alright, we can handle this. Do you think they’ll follow me? Is it that bad yet?” Lucius asked.

            “No, not yet. They haven’t even stopped by the guesthouse. We should probably make it look like it’s been lived in lately in case they do stop by. And add some dirty nappies and baby blankets.”

            “Yes, alright, someone can work on that after we get this interview over with. I’ll go back and get Draco and Hyperion. I’ll have Severus help me side along them here.”

            “We don’t want more people involved than the minimum.”

            “Yes, I’ll send Severus back home. Maybe he can work on preparing the guesthouse.”

            “Yes, that should work,” Narcissa agreed.

            And so Narcissa went back into the NHDU to sit with her grandson. “My husband is going back home to get our son and the first baby,” Narcissa told the nurse in French. The nurse told the muggle-healer, who called the muggle-Auror, the one who called himself an inspector, who passed the message back that he’d be right over.

            Lucius went back to the villa and informed his family of the plan. Draco, having been woken up from his afternoon nap by Hyperion an hour earlier, was just finishing up breast pumping and his milk was thankfully drying up a bit. Severus changed Hyperion into an overly large muggle cloth nappy and packed a nappy bag with only muggle-appropriate things, while Lucius helped Draco get dressed in muggle-appropriate clothes for the trip and gave Draco a muggle identification card with the name Drake Malcolm.

            Severus took Hyperion to their usual apparition point down the street from the muggle-hospital via side along and Lucius took Draco. Severus handed Hyperion over to Draco and went back to the guesthouse, as planned. Lucius walked into the hospital and led his family into the NHDU, where Narcissa and Scorpius were waiting.

            Narcissa hugged Draco and introduced him in French to Scorpius’ nurse and explained to the nurse that Drake didn’t speak good French.

            “Hello ma’am, can I hold Scorpius?” in English, was the first thing out of Draco’s mouth. Sure he had been to France dozens of times, but always to his family’s villa and never out and about with muggles. His parents had encouraged him to learn French, but he had always been fascinated with Hawaiian and more exotic sounding languages; French just sounded like the speaker had a nasal infection. Thus Draco’s French was _very_ limited and he didn’t bother trying.

            Narcissa translated and the nurse agreed. Narcissa took Hyperion, and Draco was sent to get changed into muggle-healer clothes, with Lucius’ assistance. While Draco and Lucius were gone, a muggle-healer came over to Narcissa and Hyperion and asked to examine the baby. Narcissa agreed and Hyperion was moved over to an opened top glass muggle-box on a cart. Narcissa stood back as the muggle-healer removed Hyperion’s clothes and nappy and examined the baby. Then he took a few measurements along with the weight, which he recorded in a muggle-folder. He seemed especially interested in measuring the penis and as he did it, he explained in French, “He seems to have the same penile defect as the other baby. I just want to take measurements of it to put in his chart. He isn’t but a few inches longer than Scorpius, but he has already grown into his penis a bit more than the other baby.”

            “I don’t believe it to be a problem; it’ll sort itself out eventually,” Narcissa insisted, also in French.

            When the muggle-healer was done, he stood back and said,     “Other than the one birth defect, this little guy seems to be in excellent health; you really lucked out with this one, it would seem. I’m just going to take a pinprick of blood to send off for testing and then you can dress him and take him home.”

            “Why do you need to draw blood? There’s nothing wrong with him.” Narcissa didn’t want her grandson to suffer through an unnecessary muggle test.

            “It’s standard procedure; we test all newborn babies for a common genetic disease that can be easily treated with a change of diet. If he has it, it’s best to know right away.”

            In that case Narcissa didn’t think she could get Hyperion out of the test without arousing more suspicion and the whole point of this visit was to diminish muggle-suspicion. Thus she agreed, Hyperion was pricked with a pin and started screaming. She picked him up to comfort him.

            Draco heard his baby screaming and ran out of the changing room without the hat of the muggle-outfit tied on. The hat fell off, but Lucius picked it up and followed after Draco.

            “What happened mother? Why was he screaming like that?” Draco asked in English, taking Hyperion from Narcissa and comforting the baby who was already quieting down.

            “It was a small pinprick test that the healer here insisted needed to be done. It’s over and he’s fine; I’m sure he’s already forgotten about it,” Narcissa said and indeed, Hyperion was already quiet again.

            “Well I wish you would’ve waited for me, Mother,” Draco said, upset that the muggle-healer had hurt his baby.

            “Alright, I’ll wait for you next time. Now why don’t you give me Hyperion back to dress and you can go hold Scorpius?” Narcissa asked.

            Hearing the promise of the one thing he had come for, Draco handed Hyperion back over to his mother and allowed Lucius to lead him across the room to the glass box where his other son was waiting. Lucius tied the muggle-hat onto Draco’s head and the muggle-nurse gave Draco a pair of weird muggle-gloves to put on. And then Draco sat in the chair his mother had been in. The muggle-nurse removed a very tiny black haired baby from the glass box and placed him into Draco’s arms.

            Scorpius was _much_ smaller than Hyperion and he had tubes shoved down his throat, obscuring his face. Draco looked around the tubes and observed a very Malfoy-esque set of features, from the little black eyebrows, to the fine cheeks, to the pointy chin, the entire face looked like a smaller version of his own newborn pictures.

            “He’s beautiful,” Draco said and at the sound of his voice, a pair of light grey eyes opened up and looked in his direction. “Hello Scorpius, I’m your father and I love you very much. I hope you’re not in much pain with that tube down your throat, but unfortunately I’m told that you need it.”

            The muggle-nurse said something in French and Lucius repeated it in English for Draco. “She said the larger tube is the respirator and it forces air into his lungs, helping him to breathe. The smaller tube is delivering the breast milk directly to his stomach. Then she said that he’s an adorable baby, which is obviously true; even a muggle could see that.”

            “Thank you,” Draco replied and continued to hold his baby. His father didn’t need to translate that, because the muggle knew enough English to understand.

            Scorpius was naked except for an overly large cloth nappy and he had some sort of patch on his chest that was connected to wires. “What’s this for?” Draco asked.

            Lucius translated the question and the muggle replied back in French, which Lucius then translated to English. “That’s to measure his heart rate. It connects to that machine over there and displays his heart rate here. An alarm will go off if it peaks or crashes.”

            “Alright,” Draco replied and let his eyes travel lower, taking in the sight of the malformed left leg for the first time. It was as long as the right one and it was obviously a bit thinner, but not horribly thin and he didn’t really see how it was bowed, although he could see that the foot was indeed turned in. He silently promised his son that he was going to kill Ronald Weasley for doing this to him.

            Draco got to hold his baby for half an hour and was even permitted to change Scorpius’ nappy. It was more difficult than changing Hyperion’s nappy, because the muggles didn’t have nappies with wizard-space charms on them and were instead using giant cloth nappies and folding the extra fabric to cover the little, or abnormally large, as the muggles would call it, penis. Scorpius certainly didn’t take after Harry in that department.

            But then a muggle-Auror came in with the muggle-Inspector and they asked Draco in English to come into a private room down the hall to meet with them alone. Draco went, leaving Scorpius in the care of the muggle-nurse and Hyperion with his mother. The room was an empty patient room with a bed and a couple of armchairs. Draco sat in one of the armchairs and the muggle-Auror and the muggle-Inspector stood. The muggles asked to see his identification card, which Draco showed them. They looked at it for several minutes, copying down all of the information into their notepad, before quizzing Draco on the details of Drake Malcolm’s life that could be garnered from the card, such as when his birth date was. Then the muggles asked him all of the same questions he had gone over earlier with Professor Snape and some trivial ones they hadn’t. Draco tried to repeat all of the answers as perfectly as he could and he was pretty good at making up lies on the spot, which helped him with the questions he wasn’t familiar with. And if he needed more time, he just pretended to have trouble with understanding the French accents.

            Draco began to wonder if the muggle-Aurors were very stupid, because they kept asking him the same questions over and over again. Or at the very least, they weren’t as proficient in the English language as they claimed. The most often repeated question was, “Why won’t ze mother come in for ze ex-zaminatión?” It didn’t seem to matter how many times Draco said she didn’t want anyone to know she had given birth or had even been pregnant, because they would just ask him again, only changing the infliction or switching the words around.

            But what really made the muggles sound stupid was when they asked him, “Where did oo get ze babiez from, Mr. Malcolm?”

            “My girlfriend gave birth to them! Where else would babies come from? If you don’t believe me, why don’t you go in that big room and take a look at Scorpius; he looks just like me,” Draco insisted, wondering where muggles thought babies came from.

            “Features are difficult oo distinguish wiz young babeez. What we’d like to do, if you’ll let uz, iz a DNA test to determine paternity,” the muggle-Inspector said.

            “A what?” Draco asked confused.

            “A DNA paternity test.”

            “What’s that?”

            “It iz a test where we take a sample of your DNA and a zample from each babee and we zee if zey match. If zey match, oo are ze father. If oo are ze father, zey’ll match.”

            “What’s dee-in-ea?” Draco asked.

            “DNA iz a molecule in your body zat instructs your body on ‘ow to make oo. Sperm contain the father’z DNA and deliver it to ze egg during conceptión. Ze baby will alwayz have ze father’s DNA az well az the mother’z. Understand?”

            “Um, sort of. How will you collect this dee-in-ea?” Draco asked.

            “Well zat’z ze problem with Scorpius, iz it not?” the muggle-Inspector asked and Draco nodded. “Scorpius iz too lettle to test. But we can test ze other one and we can certainly test oo. If your DNA matches ze other baby’s DNA, zen we’ll know oo are ze father of zat baby and probably ze father of Scorpius too.”

            “And that would be good enough?” Draco wondered.

            “Well zat and ze doctor informed us zat Scorpius ‘az a birth defect zat your parentz claim runz in ze family. If oo can demonstrate to ze doctor zat you ‘ave ze same birth defect and oo zubmit DNA from yourzelf and from ze other baby, we will let oo and the other baby go. We’ll take ze zamplez back to ze lab and test zem. If zey match, we won’t bother oo again. If zey don’t match, we’ll come looking for oo and both babiez.”

            “Alright, but you still haven’t told me how you get dee-in-ea. If it’s inside our bodies, how are you going to get it outside our bodies without hurting Hyperion?”

            “It iz a zimple blood test. Oo give a zample of your blood and ze doctor will take a zample from, what did oo call him?”

            “Hyperion.”

            “Can I just call ‘im Ryan? Your British Zifi namez are a bit ‘ard for an old French man.”

            Draco didn’t understand what the muggle was talking about, but he figured it was a muggle thing and therefore best to pretend like he did understand. In the end he agreed because it was the easiest course of action. He let the muggle-Aurors call his first born son Ryan and he agreed to give blood and submit his “birth defect” for examination. When they were finished with him, he would let them draw a sample of blood from Hyperion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will contain a lot of drama. Draco will have to reveal a full sized Peverell penis to a muggle and get his blood drawn. And if there is a problem, they can’t run, because Scorpius is still on that respirator.
> 
> BTW, I recently heard that Jo Rowling is writing another book and movie deal based on Newt Scarmander’s life in the 1920s. I’m so excited!
> 
> Please Review!


	9. Chapter9

            Once Draco agreed to the testing, the muggle-Inspector and the muggle-Auror left and Draco waited alone in the room for five to ten minutes. Then two new muggles came in. One introduced himself as Dr. Leroy, in English, thankfully, since Draco didn’t have his parents to translate. The other didn’t introduce himself, but motioned for him to pull up his sleeve. He did and the muggle tied a giant rubber band around his arm, before inserting a needle into a vein on the upper-side of his elbow and drawing a vial of blood.

            The muggle disposed of the needle and left with the vial of blood, and the other muggle, the one who had introduced himself as a healer, laid out a pile of cloth and said, “Here, put this on and I’ll be right back, yes?”

            “But I’m already wearing one of your uniforms,” Draco protested, since he was still in the get-up they had given him to hold Scorpius.

            “This is an examination gown. It’s different, yes?” muggle-Dr. Leroy asked, holding up a very thin robe with a slit all down the back. “The slit goes in the back and you don’t have to make tie it. Take off all your undergarments, yes?”

            “Um, yes, okay,” Draco agreed, not really understanding. “But what are you going to do?”

            “Make examination of you, of course. The baby has a certain birth defect on his penis and you claim to have the same defect, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “I just need to see it. Then you can put your clothes back on and I can make report of my findings back to the Inspector, yes?”

            “Alright.” Draco stood up to start taking the first set of muggle clothes off, but he did it too quickly and he had just given blood, not to mention all of the blood lost during the birth, so he was a bit woozy and stumbled.

            Dr. Leroy caught Draco in his arms and asked, “Are you alright? Here, sit back down.” Draco sat. “You are very thin; you are feeling light headed, yes?

            “Yes,” Draco admitted, seemingly caught by the muggle.

            “I will get you some juice. Just lie back for a minute, yes, sometimes drawing blood can make this, especially in rather slender people. Have you ever make blood drawn before?”

            “Not that I recall.” He didn’t want to outright say no, in case giving blood samples was normal for muggles.

            “Well you are young and healthy, yes, so there is little need. Just lie back and I’ll make with the juice.”

            Draco lay back and waited a minute for the doctor to return with a carton of juice, which he then drank.

            “Do you get light-headed often?” the muggle-healer asked and Draco was sure this was a trick question.

            If Draco said no, the muggle-healer would think this was unusual for Draco, that there was something wrong with him, and therefore needed more muggle-tests. If he said yes, well that wouldn’t be normal either and would require more tests. Either way, he was screwed. He ended going with, “Um, not often.”

            “But sometimes, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “When? Is there any activity that normally makes you feel light-headed?”

            “Shagging,” Draco admitted.

            “Yes, with that defect, shagging would make it, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco answered, wondering why this muggle ended every _bloody_ sentence with yes? At least his English was better than the muggle-Auror.

            “You are feeling better now, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Good, then just change for me and I’ll be right back.”

            This time Draco waited until the muggle was out of the room, just in case, before getting up. He pulled the weird thin gown he had worn to hold Scorpius off and then he removed his own clothes. He took his socks off, but the muggle floor was cold, so he put them back on. Then he folded his clothes into a pile on the bedside table and made sure his wand was hidden in his trousers, but still close enough that he could grab it in case of an emergency.

            The muggle-Dr. Leroy came back in and this time he had one of the muggle-folders that the muggle-healers had used to record the twins’ information. “Alright, first I need to make your blood pressure, yes?” he asked, pulling out a blue thing with a black cord that had been left in a bin attached to the wall.

            “Um, no, didn’t you already take my blood?”

            “Yes, but this is different. I am making the pressure of your blood now, yes? This cuff goes around your arm and measures the pressure, without extracting any blood out, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked. He hadn’t been planning on doing tests, but after the patient’s dizzy spell, he thought he ought to do a few tests and make sure the young man wasn’t dehydrated.

            “Oh, in that case, yeah, go ahead,” Draco said holding his arm out. He was a bit chilly and wished that the warming charm from this morning was still in place.

            “Oi, that really hurts!” Draco complained as the muggle inflated the cuff.

            The muggle pulled out a listening device from around his neck and pressed it to Draco’s arm, ignoring his complaint. The air drained out of the cuff slowly and within a minute it was over and no longer hurt. Then the cuff was off and the muggle was writing something down in the muggle-folder.

            The muggle said, “I need to listen to your heart beat, yes?” and put the listening device to Draco’s chest. When the healer was done, he wrote that too in the muggle-folder.

            “Your heart beat is good, but your blood pressure is a bit low, yes? That is why you make easily dizzy, yes?”

            “Um, if you say so.”

            “I say so, yes. I need to look into your eyes,” the muggle said, putting the blue cuff away and grabbing a short, but thick, metal wand.

            The muggle-healer added a black pointy covering to the already pointy tip and came back over to Draco with the tip glowing like a lumos spell. Draco tried to get a look at the object, wondering about what sort of magic the muggles were using to light the metal wand, but the muggle pulled his eyelids back and blinded him with the light-wand. “Oi, watch it,” he complained.

            “Sorry, but I had to look, yes? You are dehydrated and possibly anemic; you need to drink more fluids, yes?” the muggle asked, turning the light-wand off and putting it back.

            “Yeah, sure.”

            The muggle healer went to the door and called out to another muggle to bring him a pitcher of water and a glass, before coming back to Draco. “How is your urine? It is dark, yes?”

            “My what? I hardly see what that has to do with anything!” Draco protested. He still had the long-term urine vanishing charm in place and hadn’t peed in months. The muggle could poke and prod him, but he wouldn’t have any urine to show for it.

            “When you are dehydrated, the body makes dark urine. When you go, I want you to watch it and if it is a bright yellow, increase your water intake. It should be a pale yellow, yes?”

            “Yeah, okay, I’ll watch it,” Draco lied, just happy that the muggle didn’t want to see it.

            “Good. Now I am going to make your temperature, yes?” The muggle-healer grabbed an off-white colored box with a metal rod and was covering it with a glass sleeve when the door opened and a muggle-nurse came in with an obscenely ugly opaque pink colored pitcher and a matching pink cup. She set the pitcher and the cup on a rolling table which she pushed over toward the bed, before leaving and closing the door behind her.

            “Um, alright, but where are you going to stick that?” Draco asked, staring at the metal rod, but his eyes were also flickering to the egregiously ugly pitcher and wondering what it was made out of. It didn’t seem to be glass, metal, ceramic, wood, leather, or cloth, because none of those materials could be molded into something so displeasing to the ocular senses. Maybe wood covered in paint could…but even then, this pitcher didn’t look to be made out of wood.

            “Under your tongue, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco agreed and let the muggle stick the metal rod in his mouth.

            It was over a second later and the muggle was writing something else down with a stick that didn’t need an ink pot. Draco began to wonder what sort of magic was being used to refill the stick-quill, which got him really curious, because muggles weren’t supposed to have any magic. He really wanted to ask the muggle-healer about it and about the pitcher and the light-wand, but then magic writing sticks and all the other items were probably common in the muggle world and he didn’t want to seem like he didn’t know what they were. Maybe he could get one of the writing sticks and take it home to experiment with. If he could get it open, he was sure he could figure out how it worked.

            “Your temperature is normal. This is good, yes?” the muggle asked, looking up and noticing the curious expression on his patient’s face.

            “Yes.”

            “Good. You can drink while I measure you, yes?” the muggle asked, pouring water out of the ugly pitcher and handing the cup to Draco.

            Draco began drinking the water. While he drank, he noticed that the ugly material was extremely light and felt flimsy, like maybe it had been made out of stiffened paper. Perhaps muggles had found some way to harden paper into this horrendously ugly material.

            “Then if you’ll lie back and lift up your gown, I’ll just make some measurements, yes?”

            “I guess,” Draco answered, finishing off the cup of water and hoping the man didn’t want to see him hard, because weird old muggles who ended every sentence with the word yes weren’t doing it for him.

            Draco lay back, lifted up the thin muggle-robe and waited while the muggle took out a measuring tape and measured his bits.

            “This is functional, with the ladies, yes?”

            “Um, yeah,” Draco lied. It was functional with the men, but the muggle didn’t need to know about his sexuality.

            “It seems like it would be too big to fit. Even if it didn’t get any wider than this, it is still quite large, yes?”

            “Yes. Well it didn’t fit initially; we had to work at it, but then it fit,” Draco admitted.

            “And you don’t have any trouble walking with this getting in the way, yes?”

            “Well it doesn’t get in the way when my pants hold it out of the way.”

            “Alright, I have enough measurements. I will tell the Inspector that you have the same birth defect, yes?” the muggle asked, looking up at Draco and pulling the robe back down to cover Draco’s bits. “What is this?” The muggle was pointing at Draco’s chest and Draco looked down in horror to see that he was leaking breast milk again.

            ‘Bloody muggles are taking too long,’ Draco grumbled to himself, but didn’t have an answer for the muggle.

            The muggle healer pulled the top of Draco’s robe away, and since it wasn’t tied, it came away easily. “Stay lying back; I need to make examination of your chest, yes?”

            “Um, no, I’d really rather you not,” Draco said, suddenly finding some words and pulling his chest further back, to try to move his chest further away from the muggle. He had been propped up with his elbows behind him, but now he lay all the way back and attempted to use his hands to protect his chest. It did not occur to him to jump up and leave and after all, whether the stupid muggle-Aurors would let him leave with his babies or not was at stake here.

            “You are expressing breast milk, yes?” the muggle asked, looking closely at Draco’s deformed nipples and then pressing on Draco’s small, swollen breasts.

            “Uh, no.” Draco tried to deny it, but then the muggle squeezed his sensitive nipple and a heavy stream of milk shot forth. “Ow! Stop that!”

            “I am sorry. Your breasts are very full and you need to express milk, yes?” the muggle asked, before moving his hands lower, pressing on his lower abdomen.

            “Ow, that hurts too. Can you please stop touching me?” Draco asked, reaching for his wand and wondering when would be the right moment for a confundus charm.

            “You make birth to both babies, yes?”

            “No, I told you, it was my girlfriend. You know, a _girl_ , yes? With girl parts that can do that type of thing, yes?”

            “No, you have girl parts. Your uterus is still swollen, as if you make birth a few days ago. You are lactating. You are the mother and you didn’t want to come in, because you didn’t want people to know that you are a hermaphrodite, yes?”

            “No, I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

            “A hermaphrodite is someone who has both male and female parts. You have the penis and the ballocks, but you also have a uterus and malformed, yet functional, breasts, yes?”

            “No! I most certainly do not.” Draco had his wand by his side now and was considering obliviating the muggle; he was trying to think of what memory would be best to implant into the muggle’s mind to replace the lost one.

            “It’s alright, this is confidential, yes? I will not tell anyone other than the Inspector. He only needs to know so that they know you didn’t steal the babies. They will keep it confidential too. No one needs to know, yes?”

            “Yes, no one needs to know,” Draco agreed, deciding to wait to see where the muggle was going with this, because apparently there was a muggle condition that would explain how a male could give birth. Maybe muggles had Peverell men too.

            “Good. I will write this down and file it away. The Inspector will write it down and file it away and no one else will ever find out, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Your parents already know, yes?” the muggle was done poking and prodding Draco’s chest and handed Draco the top of the muggle-robe to cover back up with, before pouring Draco another cup of water.

            “Yes.”

            “Of course they had to know; someone had to deliver the babies, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “You are very thin; you haven’t make eating enough, yes?”

            “No, I’ve been eating plenty and I’m still all pudgy.”

            “That is from the shrinking uterus, but you yourself are very frail; you were dizzy after drawing only one vial of blood, yes? You need to eat and drink more while you are breast feeding, yes? You will make drinking the water now, yes?”

            “Yes, fine, but I already eat all the bloody time,” Draco grumbled before taking another sip of his second glass of water.

            “That is good, but you need to eat and drink _more_. You are dehydrated and if you are anemic, then you need to take iron. You take vitamins, yes?”

            “Huh?” Draco wasn’t sure what a-knee-mic or vi-ta-mens were or what they had to do with iron. And once he had the iron, where was he supposed to take it?

            “You are making vitamins during your pregnancy, yes?”

            “Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

            “You need to be making vitamins. Now that you are breast feeding, you need to make the vitamins so that you have vitamins in your milk for your babies. If you didn’t make them during pregnancy, then it is even more important to make them now, yes?”

            “And how would I make these vitamins?” Draco asked, thinking that if he had the directions, he could figure out what they were or ask his parents about them.

            “At the pharmacy or the grocery store, yes? They sell them over the counter, but I can make you a sample, yes?”

            “Yes, I’d like a sample.”

            “A multivitamin, a calcium, and an iron-supplement should make good, yes?”

            “Iron?”

            “For the anemia, yes?”

            “A-knee-me-a?”

            “Anemia is when the body does not produce enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to the body’s cells, yes? Red blood cells need iron to carry oxygen, so patients who are anemic need to make iron every day, yes?”

            “Make the iron how?”

            “You swallow the iron pill, yes?”

            “Uh no, I can’t swallow iron.”

            “And why not? You are not allergic, no?”

            “I’m not allergic, but iron is a metal and if I were to swallow metal it would just pass right through me or get stuck and then I’d be stuck with a pellet of iron in me forever.”

            “No, not a pellet of iron, a pill. It contains a form of iron that is easily digestible. It dissolves in your stomach, your body absorbs the iron, and then your body uses it to make more red blood cells. Then you will not be anemic and you will not have dizzy spells, yes?”

            “Do you have a sample of that I could see too?”

            “Yes, I can make you samples. You will make them and then you will go to the pharmacy and buy more, yes?”

            “Alright, yes,” Draco agreed, as long as he didn’t have to swallow the things in front of the muggle, he could take them home and find out if they were poisonous or not.

            “I will be right back with the samples and you drink your water, yes?” the muggle-Dr. Leroy asked. When Draco agreed and took another sip of the water, the muggle-healer left the room for a minute and came back with several small cards. Draco set down the empty cup and the muggle handed the samples to Draco. “These ones are the multivitamin, these are calcium, and the little ones are the iron, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Make one of each a day with food, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco pretended to agree, looking at the strange cards dotted with little pills. On one side the card looked like it was coated with a thin layer of glass, because he could see through it to the vi-ta-mens and the other side seemed to have a foil wrapper. He wondered how he was supposed to peel back the foil to get the pills out, but he had already let on about his ignorance of too many muggle things today and that problem could wait until later. On the other hand, the muggle hadn’t explained what the third type of pill was. “What’s cal-see-um?”

            “Calcium makes strong bones. Growing babies need calcium in their milk for their bones to be strong. You want strong babies, yes?”

            “Yes, alright, I’ll do all three.

            “Good, then the only thing else I need is to make a pelvic exam, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked. He hadn’t been planning on examining anything more on this patient than the alleged birth defect. Even when Drake Malcolm had the episode of dizziness he had thought it was a simple case of dehydration and only warranted a few tests. But now that he knew his patient was a hermaphrodite and had just given birth, he had no choice but to make a full exam; it was hospital policy, after all.

            “What’s that?”

            “That is where I make examination of your vagina and uterus, or your pelvic region, yes?”

            “Um, no.”

            “I need to make sure that the placenta was delivered and that you are healing properly, yes?”

            “No! I’m healed fine and I already delivered _two_ placentas. There are no more.”

            “Yes, but it is hospital policy to perform a pelvic exam on all new mothers, yes?”

            “No, I’m not a new mother; I’m the new father.”

            “Who is the other father? Certainly not the girl you told the Inspector about, yes?”

            “Yes, not her. A boy from my school.”

            “Does he know?”

            “Yes.”

            “Can you bring him in? Is he at home?”

            “No, he’s still at school in Scotland.”

            “The Inspector can call him, yes?”

            “No, he can bloody well not call him!”

            “Why not? He knows, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Then his parents don’t know, yes?”

            “His parents are dead; he’s an orphan.”

            “So whoever looks after him doesn’t know, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Well we can’t tell them, because we make it confidential, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Alright, then I just need to do the pelvic exam and you can go breast feed those babies of yours, yes?”

            Draco had thought they had settled that with a no, but now he realized that a simple confundus charm was in order. He quickly cast the charm and then hid his wand under his muggle-robe.

            “Um, sorry, I was just going to make your examination, yes?”

            “No, you just did it. It was normal, yes? You said there were no more placentas and all was healing fine, yes?”

            “Ah yes, I said that then, yes?”

            “Yes, you did.”

            “Oh yes, then everything is fine, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “I’ll have them bring the baby to you so that you can breast feed in here, yes? And I’ll go explain what is happening to the Inspector, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco agreed, breathing out a sigh of relief that the confundus had worked and he wouldn’t have to try obliviating someone. Sure he threatened doing it enough, but he had never actually tried it and he didn’t want to turn the muggle into a vegetable who was so far gone that he couldn’t remember that Draco and the babies should be allowed to go home.

            “You may make dressing now, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked and Draco agreed. “And drink more of the water, yes?”

            Dr. Leroy instructed Nancy Malcolm to bring Hyperion into the room that Drake was waiting in and he asked a nurse to bring Drake a breast pump, so that Drake could express milk for Scorpius. Then he asked Lawrence Malcolm and the two fellows from the police to meet him in his office. He sat down at his desk, Lawrence sat down in a chair opposite him, and the police officers stood. “Gentlemen, I have finished making my examination and not only does Mr. Drake Malcolm have the same birth defect, but he also has another that will make an explanation for what has happened here and mean that you don’t even need to make DNA testing, yes? You won’t need to make a blood sample from either baby, yes?” he asked.

            “And ‘ow do oo figure zat?” the muggle-Inspector asked.

            “Mr. Drake Malcolm _is_ the mother. He didn’t want to come forward, because he doesn’t want anyone to know of his condition, but I make a thorough exam and I am positive that he has just given birth, yes?”

            Lucius was a bit shocked over what the muggle was saying and was gripping his wand, trying to judge which order to obliviate the muggles in. The muggle-Aurors had muggle weapons, so they would have to be first, but which one of the muggle-Aurors to do first? There wouldn’t be time to obliviate one before the other pulled his weapon, so then he started thinking about which order to stun them in.

            “No, ‘ow can zat be?” the muggle-Inspector asked.

            “He is a hermaphrodite. He has both male and female parts, yes?” the muggle-healer asked.

            Lucius had a stupefy on the tip of his tongue for the muggle-Inspector when he was momentarily stunned to learn that the muggles had a term, and likely an explanation, for Draco’s condition. Then he realized that just maybe he wouldn’t have to stun or obliviate any muggles today after all. Obviously there were enough squibs with the Peverell traits around for the muggles to be familiar with the concept.

            The muggle-Inspector was in disbelief at first, but after several minutes of technical muggle explanation from the muggle-healer, the muggle-Inspector was sold. “Bugger, zat lettle zit iz a good liar; ‘e ‘ad me buying ‘iz story zat ze mum plum run off and come to find out ‘e’z ze mum and ‘e’z right in front of uz all along,” the muggle-Inspector said under his breath.

            “Sirs, I would like to request that you not repeat this information to anyone,” Lucius requested.

            “I make my report confidential, meaning only you, your wife, and your son can see it, with the exception of this incident requiring me to turn in a copy to these police officers,” the muggle-healer said.

            “And what of you? Is your report confidential?” Lucius asked the muggle-Aurors.

            “Your zon iz under the age of eighteen, which meanz my report will be zealed by the courtz. Zo yez, it will be confidential.”

            “Excellent. Thank you very much gentlemen. I’m glad we could get this all straightened out,” Lucius said.

            The muggles did a bit more talking after that with the muggle-Inspector saying it would be best to get the blood sample from the larger baby just in case and the muggle-healer saying that the larger baby was not large enough to undergo unnecessary blood tests, when he had proof of maternity. Hyperion, at six pounds two ounces, was still quite small even for a newborn and the vile of blood that was needed for a test was a lot of blood to take from a baby that size. The muggle-healer won the argument and the muggle-Inspector agreed that they would not need to do the paternity test, because after all this was a case of maternity. Drake Malcolm had passed the maternity test and that was sufficient. Plus Dr. Leroy wanted Drake’s vial of blood to run tests on to check for anemia and he didn’t think Drake was healthy enough to have a second vial drawn from him.

            Lucius was free to go and best of all, he was free and clear to take his family home: his entire family, including the babies. Well Scorpius had to stay a while yet, but legally Lucius could take him home as soon as the baby was released from the hospital.

            Lucius went back to his usual chair by Scorpius’ side. Fifteen minutes later, Narcissa and Draco came back with Hyperion, ready to go home. Draco was allowed to put on a pair of muggle-gloves and reach into the glass muggle-box to touch Scorpius and say goodbye.

            Draco, Narcissa, and Hyperion left, walking out of the hospital and around the corner before Narcissa apparated Hyperion home, depositing him in the crib before going back seconds later for Draco; with the pregnancy, he hadn’t had a chance to get his apparition license. Severus was sleeping in the spare bed in the nursery, so Draco went to his bedroom and set the breast pumps working, because he had only expressed just enough milk at the hospital to get the leaking to stop long enough to go home. Well it didn’t completely stop, but the muggle nurses had come in and given him some pads to put over his nipples to catch the drips and his jumper was tight enough that it held the pads in place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They’ve fooled the muggles, so if they can just stay under the radar of the wizarding world, they’ll be in the clear. What did you think of all of the drama in this chapter?


	10. Chapter10

            From then on Draco was taken by side along apparition to the muggle-hospital each day to spend a few precious moments with Scorpius. The visits were never long, just fifteen to thirty minutes when his parents were changing shifts; his mother would take him there and his father would bring him back or the other way around.

            Draco’s visits with Scorpius weren’t outwardly special or magical, but to him they were. Sure he was just going there to hold a baby, but he was holding _his_ baby. His Scorpius wasn’t like any other baby; Scorpius looked like a miniature version of himself and the baby was just so incredibly tiny. His heart ached for that baby when he wasn’t there holding Scorpius and his heart soared when he was. He began to live for those few minutes each day that he would spend with his second son.

            Draco was convinced that his feelings were not one sided, because it seemed little Scorpius lived for him too. The baby spent most of the day asleep, sleeping far more hours than Hyperion, but Scorpius always woke up when _Draco_ was there. Scorpius only ever opened his eyes a few times a day, but Scorpius always opened those grey eyes when _Draco_ was there talking to his baby. Scorpius would by all indications be sound asleep and then Draco would arrive and speak a few words and the baby would be awake, opening eyes and moving little limbs.

            By Thursday Scorpius’ muggle-nurse could even see it and was saying that Scorpius knew his father’s voice. Of course Narcissa and Lucius had to translate for her, because she spoke French and Draco still didn’t, but the effect was not lost; it made Draco feel special to know that everyone could see that such a precious being was as much enthralled with him as he was with his baby.

            Draco was enthralled with Hyperion too, not just Scorpius. When he wasn’t in the hospital with Scorpius, he was at home with Hyperion, taking care of Hyperion and talking to his baby. But then he had all day with his first born, while he only had minutes with his second, so his love for his second born was made all the more intense for the fact that it was crammed into such a short period of time.

            At home Druella and Severus continued to help with Hyperion. Severus more so than Druella, but when everyone else was napping, Druella would take her turn with her great grandson. She was old, but definitely not feeble and she certainly took a liking to the small baby; Severus just took an even greater liking. Severus was absolutely enraptured by the small features that were so distinctly Lily’s and so absolutely _not_ James Potter’s. He could just imagine Potter looking down on them, seeing Lily’s grandson in Severus’ arms and looking up at Severus with those big eyes; oh how enraged Potter would be.

            Draco, being the father and the one breast feeding Hyperion, obviously came first, but Severus got in a lot of quality time with the baby. After all, Draco couldn’t do a hundred percent of the childcare, because he had other things to do; Draco had to visit Scorpius in the hospital, take naps to catch up on sleep missed during the night and to regain his strength, and pump breast milk. The breast pump was portable and handless, but it still got in the way of Draco holding his baby and it made other chores, like changing nappies, more difficult. And well, Severus was all too eager to step up and fill in when needed, getting his share of Hyperion’s time.

            Hyperion, like his younger brother, obviously preferred Draco to everyone else. He would spend several hours during the day awake, spread out with lots of naps in between, so both Severus and Druella got to spend time with Hyperion while he was awake. But even then, he seemed to make a special effort to seek Draco out, to wake up when Draco was holding him or when Draco was talking to him. The baby couldn’t hold eye contact yet or even focus, but he seemed to seek out Draco’s face and stare at his father with those wide dark grey eyes of his. Well his eyes weren’t super dark, but they were several shades darker than Draco’s and Scorpius’ eyes and already turning blue.

            To Draco, the most amazing thing Hyperion would do was when the baby’s tiny head would turn to look in the direction Draco’s voice was coming from. Severus or Druella would be holding the baby while Draco pumped, Draco would say something, and Hyperion’s head would turn. Often Hyperion’s eyes would open too, like he was trying to spot his father. It was the kind of heartwarming moment Draco lived for these days; the type of moment that made him glad he had kids.

            Hyperion and Scorpius both put on a bit of weight; an ounce for Scorpius and three ounces for Hyperion. Scorpius was still getting all of his nutrition through the feeding tube, but his allotment of milk had gone up and they were now feeding the little guy three quarters of an ounce every two hours. Hyperion, on the other hand, was being solely breastfed, so they didn’t know exactly how much he was eating. Draco started to measure the milk pumped from the other side while Hyperion was eating, as the best comparison he had available. By that measure, Hyperion was drinking a lot; two or more ounces every two hours; it was no wonder he was gaining weight so quickly.

            Draco was still producing enough milk for both babies, and then some. They had a shelf of full bottles under stasis charms. In fact, they’d run out of bottles, needed more, and so were using a storage vat. A house elf who worked on the dairy processing side of the villa had retrieved the large dairy barrel, which was cleaned, thoroughly sanitized, and repurposed. The barrel already had an extremely strong stasis charm on it that could hold milk for years without spoilage or degradation, so it was perfect. Once a day, a house elf would take all of the filled bottles and dump the milk into the barrel. Then the bottles would be cleaned, sterilized, and sent back for reuse.

            Draco was starting to feel like a dairy cow the way he was being used for milk. He was being forced to eat and drink, even when he didn’t really feel like it, because the adults kept saying he was too thin. In his mind, it all started when that muggle-healer had told him he was too thin and dehydrated; he thought the muggle must’ve blabbed to his parents, because now everyone was on him to eat and drink more.

            The muggle-healer had been good for a couple of things though. Not only had he gotten the muggle-Aurors off Draco’s back, but there were also vitamins. Draco had given the vitamins to Severus, who examined them and determined that the multivitamin was nothing more than a collection of standard doses of most of the trace nutrients the body needs each day; the stuff that wasn’t sugars, fats, or proteins. The iron supplement was an edible form of elemental iron, which Severus did not know to be important in blood production, but Draco had tried it and suddenly felt great. After a few days of the muggle-iron, he was no longer sleepy all the time. Sure he still needed naps, but when he was awake, he no longer felt sleepy, tired, or run-down. He started taking his iron-supplement every day and even asked Severus to pick some more up for him from the muggle store.

            And that was pretty much how the next three days passed in a whirl of juggling babies, breast pumping, muggle-vitamins, and muggle-hospitals. But then something truly amazing happened Saturday morning when Draco was visiting Scorpius at the muggle-hospital. The muggle-healers said that they were ready to try taking Scorpius off of the breathing machine and they waited for Draco’s visit to do so. They had plenty of muggle-doctors and nurses on stand-by to hook Scorpius right back up to the breathing machine and shove the tube back down his tiny throat should this attempt fail, but Draco wasn’t thinking about that; he was thinking about what would happen if the attempt succeeded.

            Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco all waited with baited breath for the muggles to remove the tube. Draco was wearing the sterile muggle-gown, because if little Scorpius breathed on his own, they were going to hand him over to Draco.

            While they were waiting for the healers and nurses to get everything set up, Dr. Leroy, the one muggle-healer who spoke English, came up to them and said, “Hello Malcolm family. I am Dr. Leroy, Drake remembers me from Wednesday, yes? I normally make my work over in the maternity ward, but I make the best English, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco agreed.

            “They want Drake to stand near the baby’s head and talk to him, yes? Babies always listen to the parents, yes? Scorpius is a good boy and if Father tells him to breathe, the baby will breathe, yes?”

            “Will that really work?” Draco asked.

            “Sometimes it does; other times the baby is not ready yet. Every baby is different, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Good, then you do want to try talking to him for the doctors, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Great. The two things they ask is that you not touch him, only speak to him, yes? And if it doesn’t work and he doesn’t breathe, that you step back, yes?”

            “Yes, alright, I can do that: don’t touch him and step back if he doesn’t breathe. Er, how will I know when it’s time to step back if he hasn’t breathed?”

            “I will stand with you and I will tell you to step back and then pull you back with me, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “Your baby wakes up and opens his eyes for you, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            One of the muggle-healers said something to Dr. Leroy in French and Dr. Leroy said something back in French, followed by a reply in French from the other muggle-healer.

            “Good. The physicians think that when the tubes are out and you speak to him, he might try to look for you. If you sit down on a chair in front of the table where they are working on him and he opens his eyes, he’ll be at eye level with you, yes?”

            “Yes.”

            “You will try it then, yes?”

            “Yes, sure, I’ll sit down in front of him if you want.”

            “Good, then I’ll get the wheelchair,” Dr. Leroy said, retrieving a wheelchair from the corner of the room and coming back. “You sit in the chair now, yes?”

            Draco was slightly annoyed that he had agreed to sit in a wheelchair without knowing it would be a wheelchair; it reminded him of his brief stint in a wheelchair after being punched in the gut by Weasley, which was the reason behind Scorpius’ hospital stay in the first place. But this was for his son and if it worked, he would get to hold his baby without any tubes in the way for the first time. Draco sat and let Dr. Leroy push him into position at the end of the muggle-hospital table next to the muggle-box containing Scorpius.

            Draco watched and waited while the muggle-healer took Scorpius out and examined him one last time. Dr. Leroy was by his side the entire time, telling him that the other doctors were saying that the baby looked good and they were ready. The muggles pulled the feeding tube out and then slowly removed the respirator tube. Dr. Leroy urged Drake to talk to the baby as Scorpius’ little face distorted while they pulled. It looked like the baby would scream if the tube weren’t in the way.

            “Scorpius, hang in there my little man; they’re taking that awful tube out of your throat and then you’ll be able to breathe on your own,” Draco said and Scorpius’ eyes flashed open for a second, before they clenched closed again. “You’re gonna be good and breathe for your father, yeah? I’d really like to see you breathing; it’d mean you’ll come home with me sooner. Your brother, Hyperion, is waiting for you at home. And if you breathe and don’t have that tube stuck in your throat, you’ll be able to cry and make noises.”

            Then the tube was out and Draco fell silent as he waited to see what would happen. Dr. Leroy said, “Don’t stop, keep talking, yes?” at the same time that Scorpius took in a breath and let out a piercing wail, to let everyone know what he thought of that tube in his throat.

            “Scorpius, Father’s right here baby. I’m so proud of you; the healers are gonna let me hold you any second now,” Draco said as the muggles finished removing the device and checked the baby’s airways. Then the muggles finally set Scorpius in Draco’s arms. He looked down into his son’s wailing face and smiled. “I’m gonna be seeing this a lot then, eh? Are you gonna keep screaming at your father? I didn’t even do it; it was the muggles. All I did was give birth to you, carry you in my body for nine months, and send you breast milk. You know, it’s Daddy Harry you really ought to be crying at, not me.”

            Scorpius’ cries turned into wails as Draco spoke and his little face relaxed. His little grey eyes opened as he finally looked up into his father’s face.

            “Hi there, that’s what Father likes to see. Yes, it’s Daddy you should cry at, not Father, isn’t it, my little man? I bet you’re sick of this place and ready to go home with me, aren’t you? Just let Hyperion tell you, he’s got it good at home: all the adults around to cater to his every whim, change his nappy whenever he soils himself, and me to feed him at all hours of the night. That can be your life too, if you just keep breathing on your own like you’re doing now. Did I tell you how proud of you I am?”

            While Draco talked, the muggles removed the table and the breathing machine. All but one healer and one nurse cleared away and Lucius and Narcissa were allowed to come forward. The happy grandparents joined in, telling their grandson how good life was at home, but leaving out all mentions of magic or Severus.

            After about ten minutes Scorpius began to cry again and the muggle-healer told Draco, through Lucius acting as a translator, to go ahead and breastfeed the baby. Draco felt weird about doing it with muggles watching, but he also wanted to bond with his baby and as always, his breasts were achingly full. Thus he pulled his sweater and muggle shirt off and helped Scorpius latch on. While Scorpius drank, the baby’s eyes opened and stayed opened. Draco could swear they made eye contact. Scorpius would blink, but then those light grey eyes would open back up and stare up at Draco’s face again.

            Draco didn’t want to leave Scorpius when he was done breast feeding; he didn’t want to go home while Scorpius was stuck with the muggles, but he had to, because he had Hyperion at home and his chest was beginning to ache with the pressure of built up fluid. He comforted himself by saying that Scorpius wouldn’t be alone; Father had been with him all night and now Mother was staying with him until tonight.

            And so Draco left and went back to the villa, where he comforted himself by hugging Hyperion closely.

            Scorpius continued to breathe on his own and when Saturday evening came with no further setbacks, the muggles moved the baby over to the SCBU, where Scorpius was assigned a new nurse. This was the last level of care before Scorpius could be released; if nothing went wrong in the next forty-eight hours, the baby would be back home at the villa with his family.

            So Saturday was a very happy day, but the following day turned out to be very stressful, mostly because Severus went back to Hogwarts. Severus had been helping Draco out quite a lot with taking care of Hyperion; maybe too much in fact, since it seemed like the staunch headmaster never put the baby down. Severus was up in the middle of the night helping with nappy changes and he did most of the childcare while Draco was pumping breast milk. Druella help too, mostly covering a shift each afternoon while Draco and Severus slept, but Draco’s parents never had time to help at home, because they were always sleeping or at the hospital.

            When Severus left, Narcissa was at the hospital and Lucius was asleep, leaving Draco and Druella to manage Hyperion on their own. Draco quickly learned that his grandmother was not the help Severus had been, as he was thrust into the deep-end. He was pumping, as expected for the human-dairy cow he felt like, and then Hyperion started fussing. He had just fed the baby, so he knew it wasn’t that and a peak at the nappy quickly identified the problem. He called for his grandmother, but she was off, probably lecturing the doxies on how to properly infest pureblood estates again, and didn’t respond. He was left to try to manage a breast pump and a nappy change at the same time.

            It took a bit of maneuvering, but eventually Draco figured out how to pick Hyperion up and settle him in one arm on the side of his body, with the strap of the pumping machine on his other side, and the pumps in front. He took his newborn son over to the changing table and held his arms out stiffly, so as not to bump the pumps on his chest, and switched out the wet nappy for a clean one, levitating the dirty one into the nappy hamper for the house elves to deal with. Then he scooped the baby back up and carried Hyperion back over to the crib to finish his nap.

            By the time Severus came by for a quick afternoon visit, Draco was fairly proficient at doing the necessary chores while having the breast pumps connected. Severus didn’t stay long, having to get back to his duties, but he did promise to stop by for an hour every afternoon, if possible. And Druella, back from wherever she’d been all morning, did take over after Severus left, so that Draco could get a nap in. That nap was very much appreciated and Draco woke feeling refreshed; so much so that he didn’t even mind when he caught his grandmother warning Hyperion never to trust evil muggles. It was the same speech he recognized from his own childhood and tended to follow a fairy tale his grandmother liked to tell about muggles luring wizard children into a candy house and eating them.

            Draco took his baby back from his grandmother and reassured Hyperion that muggles weren’t in fact going to eat anyone, while he helped Hyperion latch on for a feeding. Once Hyperion was sucking greedily, he summoned the baby brush and ran it through the straight blond tuffs of hair. This baby’s hair was shorter than Scorpius’ hair, but it was thicker, like there were a much greater number of strands. And although the hair was straight, there was a definite cowlick in the back that didn’t want to lie flat, not to mention two sections of hair growing in opposite directions that met in the front, to produce a region where the hair seemed to naturally rise up.

            “Don’t you go thinking about getting your daddy’s hair, now; you’re supposed to have my blond hair. If you insist on letting it come in all over the place then I’m gonna have to take you to a hair stylist witch and have your hair follicles spelled to all lean in the same direction. Those appointments take hours, so you’re best not going down that road at all,” Draco told Hyperion as his baby suckled.

            Hyperion’s hair never did lie down flat, but short of casting a grooming charm on a newborn, which he wasn’t going to do, there was nothing more Draco could do for it. He cast the brush aside and summoned a nail file to smooth down the baby’s paper thin nails. Hyperion’s breathing deepened and milk begin to leak out the sides of his little mouth, dribbling down his chin and onto Draco’s robes. Draco grabbed a burp-cloth and wiped away the excess milk, noticing that once again Hyperion seemed to have fallen asleep while eating.

            “Oi, Hyperion, you need to finish eating before you go to sleep,” Draco said, stroking the baby’s cheek to encourage him to finish. “This has to be the third time today you’ve fallen asleep on me.”

            The baby pulled in a few more good sucks and then went back to the sleepy sucking without actually swallowing. Milk once again dribbled down the baby’s neck and Draco’s chest and robes. Hyperion let go of Draco’s nipple, but only to cough at the mouth full of milk he had but didn’t want. Draco moved the baby so that he was facing down and patted his back to help the milk clear the little airways, before burping Hyperion properly. Draco wiped them both up and went to lay Hyperion down in the basinet, but Hyperion woke up and started crying.

            Draco picked Hyperion back up and cuddled the baby in hopes of Hyperion going back to sleep, but Hyperion just kept fussing and started rooting for a nipple, like he was hungry again. Draco put Hyperion back on, and the baby sucked greedily again for a minute, before falling back to sleep. “No more of this falling asleep on me, little man. You need to sleep in the basinet and not on my nipple,” Draco complained.

            “Give him here,” Druella requested, seeing Draco’s problem.

            Draco handed the baby over to his grandmother and she laid the baby in the basinet, before moving two of the baby’s fingers into his wailing mouth to suck on. “He just wants something to suck on while he sleeps,” Druella said.

            “Alright. Perhaps he needs a soother,” Draco said, remembering the muggle toys Hermione had shown him in the room of requirement. He had told his mother to buy a bunch of them; he’d have to go look for them in the storeroom.

            “Those muggle things your mother bought?” Druella asked.

            “Yes. Do you know where she put them?”

            “In the storeroom somewhere, but they’re not for newborns. I was telling her you shouldn’t be giving a muggle thing to a baby at all; you know it might turn them into squibs!”

            “Nonsense, Grandmother; they’re just harmless toys.”

            “Let me tell you boy, toys aren’t always harmless; Bellatrix nearly choked on a muggle toy my sister-in-law gave her. It was a hard plastic doll and little Bella, she was only two at the time, put the thing in her mouth. The head popped off and got lodged in her windpipe! Luckily my Cygnus was there and got it out and set Bella back to right, but after that we never gave the girls muggle toys again. You got to check the labels on those thing you know; I had your mother check the label on those muggle toys when they arrived and they say they’re for babies two weeks old and older.”

            “Thank you grandmother. I guess I’ll wait another week or so before trying them,” Draco agreed disappointed. He didn’t think he could take another day of Hyperion falling asleep on him at every feeding, but at least he had his grandmother’s finger trick.

            Monday morning Draco discovered that he could wear his paternity robes while pumping breast milk. Not only were the robes roomy enough to accommodate the pumps and bottles, but they contained a wizard-space charm on them that extended to the chest region and allowed the robes to lie flat over his chest. He had worn these robes during his pregnancy to accommodate the protrusion from his distended belly and now it seemed as though these robes were perfect to wear while pumping. Plus, the cloth panels covering his chest could be spelled away, for easy feedings and changing the collection bottles on the breast pump.

            With his paternity robes on and the strap to the breast pump slung over his shoulder, Draco felt free to move around again, even when he was pumping. He could pick Hyperion up and lay the baby on his chest, even with the pump in place. Changing nappies and burping babies was no longer a difficult juggling act, but as easy as if he wasn’t pumping at all. Between the paternity robes and the finger trick, Monday went much more smoothly than Sunday had gone.

            The best part about Monday was the evening, when Narcissa came home and told Draco that the muggles were ready to release Scorpius. Draco hugged her and wasted no time in changing into muggle clothes, so that he could pick up his son. While Draco was changing, Narcissa went into the storeroom with all the baby things and opened up the second carseat, spelling the straps to the smallest setting.

            The muggles had informed Narcissa that they did not release babies from their hospital without an infant carseat, because they wanted to see proof that the parents owned one and that the baby would not be riding home in a muggle-vehicle without one; the baby wouldn’t be riding in a muggle vehicle at all, but the muggles didn’t know that. Narcissa thanked Merlin that Draco had liked the carseats and had asked for a set. She took the carseat to the nursery and snapped it into the stroller with the other carseat. She found the instruction booklet for the carriage and spelled it to appear as if it had wheels, like a muggle baby carriage. It would still go down stairs like a floating carriage and be just as light to push, but while on flat ground it would appear to have wheels. Though, they’d still have to make sure not to take in on stairs in front of the muggles.

            Draco, freshly changed into muggle-appropriate clothing, came into the nursery and saw Narcissa strapping Hyperion into the carrier on top of the stroller. Draco grabbed a nappy bag, just in case, and made sure it had enough nappies, wipes, blankets, and spare clothes to last for the short trip. Then it occurred to him that he didn’t know why they were taking Hyperion with them, when they had always left the baby at home with his grandmother before. There was no point taking this baby out of the protection of the fidelius and into the risky muggle world when he could be left at home just as easily.

            “Mother, why are we taking Hyperion?”

            “The muggle-healers keep insisting they need to do another check-up on him. They don’t want to let Scorpius go without seeing Hyperion again,” Narcissa answered.

            “Oh. What do they want to do to him?” Draco asked, remembering how the muggles had insisted on sticking his baby with a pin last time.

            “Check his weight and fill out paperwork. You have to sign birth certificates for both babies. Hospital policy or some other such nonsense,” Narcissa explained.

            They were ready and then they were off, Narcissa apparating Draco into the muggle world before going back for the stroller with Hyperion. Narcissa stayed with Hyperion while the muggles measured and weighed him. Dr. Leroy came for Draco, taking Draco into an exam room to check his vitals and make sure that Draco was no longer dehydrated.

            “I make a hematocrit test on your blood sample. You are anemic, yes, so it is very important that you make your iron supplements every day, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked.

            “Yes, alright. I’ve been taking them; they make me feel less tired all the time. But what’s a heem-mat-o-crit test?” Draco asked.

            “A test of anemia. We didn’t need to make the paternity test with your blood sample, so I make the hematocrit test instead. It showed that you don’t make enough red blood cells, yes. That’s why the iron makes you feel better, yes?”

            “Yes,” Draco agreed.

            “You’re no longer suffering from dehydration, yes, but you need to make drinking lots of fluids every day so that it doesn’t happen again. Yes?”

            Draco agreed and then was taken by Dr. Leroy into an office of a muggle who was in charge of paperwork; the second muggle had a heavier accent than Dr. Leroy, so Dr. Leroy did a lot of translating. Draco answered a few questions with phony information and refused to give information about the other father. Then there was an argument regarding which field on the certificate Draco’s fake name should go into. Draco wanted to be entered as the father and the muggle in charge of paperwork kept insisting that she had to enter him as the mother.

            “Dr. Leroy, you _said_ this would be confidential. How do you possibly think this will be confidential, if it’s on the birth certificate?” Draco asked, getting exasperated with the muggles. He couldn’t have it written in the muggle public records that a male had given birth to twins, because then the French Ministry for Magic would get involved.

            “I will see what I can do, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked before arguing with the other muggle in French.

            Finally the muggles settled their dispute and Draco was allowed to sign in the father box and leave the slot for the mother’s signature blank, while the spot for the mother’s name was listed as, “Mère porteuse”, which meant surrogate mother.

            The muggles were done with Scorpius and Hyperion and ready to release them before Draco finished with the paperwork. Draco was given a copy of the documents and they were finally allowed to leave. They strapped Scorpius into the carseat next to his brother and the Malfoy family left hospital for the last time. Narcissa side-along apparated the twins in their stroller, while Lucius took Draco and then the entire Malfoy family was back under the protection of the fidelius charm for the duration of the war.

            The first thing Draco did when he got his sons home was to lay down with them, one in each arm, in the spare bed in the nursery. He just lay there holding his babies and talking to them, telling them how much he loved them. Then he fed them and looked down at the two tiny heads suckling. Scorpius’ head was a bit smaller and was covered in two-inch-long straight black stands of hair that lay perfectly flat. Hyperion’s head had the thicker, shaggier, but shorter blond hairs. Hyperion kept his now dark blue eyes opened and looking up at him the entire time he fed; Hyperion’s eyes were already darker than Narcissa’s and were flecked with green, hinting at the color they were meant to be.

            Scorpius copied his brother and looked up at Draco with a pair of light grey eyes. Looking back and forth between those two pairs of eyes as he fed his sons, he knew that it was all worth it; the hiding, the lying, the switching sides of the war; he would do it all again for these two perfect beings.

            Scorpius let go first, so Draco burped him and then laid him down in the crib, before he burped Hyperion. Then he put Hyperion down in the same crib as Scorpius, laying him right next to his brother, so that they could reconnect. Scorpius flailed his little hands and poked Hyperion in the face, but Hyperion just opened his mouth and latched onto Scorpius’ little fingers and sucked. Draco summoned the camera and took a picture of his two boys.

            Then Draco remembered Harry and went to his bedroom to get the charmed parchment. His sons were in the nursery waiting for him, so he kept it short, writing only, “I just brought our son home from the hospital. He’s healthy, except for the leg, and we’re all safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius is home and breathing on his own! Yay! Draco won’t let his babies out of the protection of the fidelius charm anytime soon.
> 
> Please Review!


	11. Chapter11

            In the days that followed Draco’s second message to Harry, Hermione looked into Gringotts and was able to verify that the Lestranges had a family vault. But that was where they ran into another road block, because the Lestrange family vault was one of the old vaults, in the deepest and most heavily guarded part of Gringotts. It would be impossible to get in there, because they had no idea how the vault was guarded. Plus, they had no particular reason to believe Bellatrix had hidden a horcrux inside; they didn’t even know for certain that Voldemort had given Bellatrix a horcrux to guard in the first place. So they kept that lead in mind for future references, but for now it led nowhere. The same held for the knowledge that the Malfoy Manor would obey Harry over Voldemort, because until they could find the rest of the horcruxes and a way to destroy them, he couldn’t bring the fight to Voldemort’s doorstep, no matter how much he wanted to.

            Then there was the news of the birth of Harry’s twin sons to think about. The second baby’s stay in the muggle-hospital and the baby’s malformed leg were frequently on Harry’s mind. It was all linked and it all came back to Ron hitting Draco; Harry couldn’t agree with Draco more when it came to the belief that all these problems were caused by Ron. Ron had deserted them in their horcrux hunt and Ron had almost caused his second son to die three times now and had given the baby a permanent birth defect. If Ron were here, he would hex Ron so bad…he didn’t know how bad, but it’d be bad.

            Harry’s desire to curse Ron didn’t even diminish a week later when he heard from Draco for a third time and learned that the second baby was out of the muggle-hospital and safe in Draco’s arms. He was extremely relieved to know that his son was safe, breathing on his own, and back under the protection of the fidelius charm. It was like a weight lifting off of his chest, but it was only one weight out of many. He still had so many reasons to be stressed and the fact that he was once again getting the silent treatment from Draco just added to his burden; sure he understood that it’d be safer for Draco and the babies if their contact was limited and Draco had made sure to write him and tell him about the three most important things that had happened, but still there was a constant day to day wondering that ate at him; the not knowing how his family was.

            Ron wasn’t there to hex, they couldn’t get into the Lestrange family vault, it was too soon to storm Malfoy Manor, they didn’t have the sword, Draco didn’t reply back, his second son still needed treatment for a deformed leg, and it all added up and took its toll on Harry. As the weeks passed, he became increasingly desperate to make some progress and find the next horcrux or the sword. The one place that they hadn’t looked that he was certain would be important to Voldemort and Dumbledore was Godric’s Hollow. He was sure they needed to check out the place where Voldemort had met his first defeat in an infant and lost his first corporal body and the place where Dumbledore had grown up.

            And so Harry and Hermione went to Godric’s Hollow and it was a trap. Nagini had been there disguised as Bathilda Bagshot and had attacked them. Hermione had rescued Harry and gotten them away, but they were still without the sword, Harry’s wand was broken, and Harry had been bitten by Nagini. Harry mended his wand, but it wasn’t functional, so he shoved it into the drawstring pouch that he wore around his neck.

            Hagrid had given the bag to Harry and Harry kept all is most important possessions in it; the snitch Dumbledore had given him, his Protean charmed coin and parchment from Draco, and now his wand. He had considered putting the fragment of Sirius’ mirror in the pouch way back when he had cleaned out his school trunk, but the shard was useless and dangerous, so he’d thrown it out.

            Harry couldn’t sleep that night, so he and Hermione packed up the tent and moved to the Forest of Dean in the wee hours of the morning. They set up camp, casting charms as they went, and had a somber breakfast, but Harry was still mourning the loss of his wand and had to get away from Hermione to think, so he offered to keep watch and sent her to bed. He sat outside in the freezing cold wearing every sweater he owned and pulled out his coin, wishing he could talk to Draco.

            That morning, instead of sending Draco and his sons a message that he loved them, like he usually did, he sent the message, “I broke my wand.” That was it; he didn’t ask for help obtaining a new one or ask for advice on how to mend the old one. And well, that really wasn’t what he wanted anyway, because what he really wanted was his husband to sit by his side with a sympathetic ear and tell him it would be okay. But he wasn’t expecting that or any other reply, because Draco never replied back.

            Harry sat there, holding Hermione’s borrowed wand, and flipping the coin over and over again as the time passed and he thought about his wand. He had been counting on the twin cores to protect him from Voldemort, as his wand had done twice before. He thought his pouch felt a bit warm and was about to check it, but then he jumped as the coin in his hand burned. He looked down and read the message. “Look at your parchment.”

            Harry quickly pulled his parchment out of his drawstring bag and read the message. “Where are you? You can borrow mine- it worked for you alright before, didn’t it? I have the wand of Lord Malfoy now.”

            Harry cursed the fact that he didn’t have a quill or pot of ink in his drawstring bag; instead he had to go back inside the tent and retrieve the items from Hermione’s bag. It took a minute, but then he had them and he was back outside writing, “The Forest of Dean, but how will you get it here? You can’t leave the protection of the fidelius for this.”

            “Father volunteered to deliver it for me. He said he’s been meaning to pass the Sword of Gryffindor along to you anyway; he just never knew where you were.”

            “Your father is with you and the babies!?! Why? That’s not safe! And how and why does he have the sword?” Harry’s anxiety skyrocketed as he realized that Lucius Malfoy, a known Death Eater, was with his family and he wasn’t. He had no way to protect them.

            “Relax, Father’s been here for months and hasn’t hurt us. I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d freak out, but he’s on my side and helped save the second baby’s life. I’m really not sure how you didn’t figure it out. I had to have had more help than just my mother and elderly grandmother taking care of me. Father took the second baby to the muggles, Mother finished up the delivery, and Grandmother tended to the first baby. Father loves us and wanted to apologize to you months ago, but I advised against it, because your occlumency is shite. Anyway, he stole the sword from my aunt Bellatrix before he left the Manor and replaced it with a forgery, because he thought it was important. She still thinks she has the real one, but the real one has been here for ages. I didn’t even know you were looking for it.”

            Harry had to read through Draco’s note multiple times before the words began to sink in and form sentences. The first sentence was all he managed to process during his first read through: Lucius had been with Draco and the babies for months. For whatever reason, Draco and Narcissa had felt confident enough of Lucius’ loyalty to the Malfoy family, even when the family’s interests were is opposing orientation to the interests of Voldemort, to let Lucius into their protected safe house. Draco and Narcissa were totally vulnerable to Lucius! How did they plan on defending themselves if Lucius had turned on them? What if Lucius was just buying time until the opportune moment to turn on them? What if this was Lucius’ trap and now Draco would tell Lucius where Harry and Hermione were and then they’d be captured, the war would be over, and he didn’t even know what would happen to Draco and the babies.

            The second time Harry read through the letter he got through the part about Lucius’ role in saving the second baby’s life. Suddenly the events Draco told him about clicked and it became obvious that Draco had had another able bodied adult with him. He seethed with anger at the idea that Lucius had been charged with saving his son’s life. But then on the third run through, it occurred to him that Lucius _had_ saved his sons life. Lucius hadn’t turn the baby over to Voldemort, but brought the baby back to Draco. Lucius had taken Harry’s son to the muggles and begged them for help. Lucius the pureblood muggle hater had in the heat of the moment, when it was a matter of life and death, chosen to save the baby by going to the muggles.

            Harry began to think that Lucius must absolutely put his family above all else in the world for Lucius to have done that; no other explanation made sense. Lucius had abandoned Voldemort; Harry had seen Voldemort’s fury himself. Lucius hadn’t used the baby to lure Harry out of hiding to his death; Harry would’ve walked right into a trap if it meant the chance to save the baby. Lucius had saved the baby in the first place, when all others would’ve failed and when there was another baby available for use as a potential weapon against Harry.

            Harry read the message one more time and finally the last part sunk in. Lucius had done all that for Draco and the babies and now Lucius was offering up the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry. It was a gesture to show support, prove where his loyalties lie, or make amends for past crimes; it didn’t really matter which, just that Lucius wanted to apologize to him _months_ ago? Wow, he had never for a moment thought that would happen and now that is was happening, he wasn’t really sure what to think about it.

            The one thought Harry did grasp onto was that the Sword of Gryffindor was now within his reach. He had been looking for the Sword, trying to figure out where Dumbledore might leave it for him, for _months_ now. He had risked his life, almost been eaten by a giant snake, and broken his wand, looking for the sword, which was now being handed to him. He couldn’t just pass this up; he had to see where this went, if there was even a chance that Lucius had the real sword then he had to see what it would take to get it from Lucius, even if it meant letting the man stay with his family in hiding…well maybe not if it meant that, because he would never agree to that and he also didn’t have a choice in the matter. The only thing he had a choice on was how he reacted.

            Next Harry began to wonder about how Lucius had gotten the sword. Draco’s letter said that Lucius stole it from Bellatrix Lestrange. Well Bellatrix couldn’t’ve had the sword until sometime after Bill and Fleur’s wedding on Harry’s birthday, when the Minster for Magic had…had not in fact had the sword with him that day. Lucius could’ve already had the sword even then, he supposed.

            Could Bellatrix have gotten the sword in the summer, before Snape was announced as headmaster, back when Harry still thought Professor McGonagall was in charge? Could she have had it when Lucius got out of Azkaban? Could Lucius have made, or had someone else make, a forgery so quickly? Harry thought about it, and it seemed that the answer to all of those questions was yes, because he simply didn’t know where and when the sword had been.

            Finally Harry thought about whether or not Lucius would take the sword. Draco wouldn’t have told Lucius all of the details of the situation _before_ Lucius left Voldemort. He had thought that Draco wouldn’t have let Lucius into their safe house while Voldemort was still alive and he had been wrong there, granted, but he was not wrong about this now. Draco was pregnant at the time and absolutely wouldn’t have put their unborn babies into harm’s way and Draco wouldn’t have risked telling his father more than the absolute minimum as long as Lucius was still with Voldemort, when Lucius still had the opportunity to steal the sword from Bellatrix.

            So maybe Lucius knew that the Malfoys were switching sides, but nothing more, and certainly nothing about Harry. Given that was the case, would there be any reason for Lucius to take the sword with him? To put his life at risk to get the sword? Harry pondered that question for a minute and then looked back at Draco’s message on the parchment, before deciding the answer was yes. If Lucius had known the sword was of value when it came to the war, and surely he did if Bellatrix knew, then Lucius was just the type of sneaky snake to steal the most valuable piece he could find before switching sides. What better way to come out on top than to turn up with the sword and present it to whichever side he decided he ultimately wanted to be on? If Lucius chose to go back to Voldemort, he could present the sword to his Lord and claim he rescued it from Harry. If Lucius ended up siding with his son, as now seemed to be the case, he could offer up the sword as payment for his past crimes.

            Yes, Lucius would sneak off with the sword and he just might actually be on Harry’s side now. And Harry had already given his location up to Draco, who was living with Lucius and probably had Lucius hovering over his shoulder. The only choice now was whether to stay and see how this played out, or to run into the tent, grab Hermione, and get out of the Forest of Dean before Lucius could get here. He didn’t feel like moving again and he really wanted that sword and that was what motivated him as he sat back down, dipped his quill in the ink, and wrote his reply to Draco.

            “It could be a trap. How do I know he won’t capture me and turn me over to Voldemort?”

            “It’s not a trap; I promise you my father will not harm you. You don’t have to meet him and reveal your position for the exchange. Father will leave the sword and my wand somewhere and send his patronus out, before he disapparates. Be on the lookout for his doe patronus and follow it back to where the items are. Father will be gone before you even get there and the form of his patronus will prove where his loyalties lie; you can’t lie with a patronus.”

            “A doe?” Harry wrote back as he thought about it. He couldn’t imagine Lucius with a doe patronus; something just didn’t fit with that one.

            “It changed when he fell in love with his grandsons. He realized how fully our family’s welfare was linked to your survival. Besides, you’re a Malfoy now, so the Malfoy name will benefit from your defeat of the Dark Lord; that bit carried a lot of weight with him and I’m glad you agreed to change your name, because it made turning him over to our side so much easier.”

            “Speaking of names, what did you name our sons? You never told me.”

            “I did so; Hyperion and Scorpius.”

            “Yes, but which is which?”

            “Hyperion is the first born and Scorpius the second. Give father time to get there; he’s never been before, but he says he can be there by tonight. Keep an eye out for the doe.”

            “I will. I love you and I miss you. Tell our boys I love them?”

            “I tell them they should save their crying and fussing for you.”

            “Why?” Harry wrote back. He waited, but an answer never came. He didn’t have anything else to do, so he waited some more. Then he kept right on waiting as he watched the forest for any signs of life.

            Harry waited until Hermione woke up. He told her everything and she asked if he was mental and said how very dangerous this was and then asked if Draco was mental and said how very dangerous it was of Draco to let Lucius in. Harry agreed with her, but he didn’t have any other viable options and they needed the sword and he wanted the wand. In the end they decided to risk it and stay, but to pack up everything so that they would be able to leave the moment it was over, just in case.

            Harry and Hermione were waiting when they saw the doe. Harry ran after the doe and Hermione followed in his invisibility cloak as back up. Harry found Draco’s wand by the pond and then saw the sword inside the pond. He went in the pond to get the sword and the locket nearly drowned him, but someone saved him, pulled him up, and cut the horcrux off of him. That someone also retrieved the sword. It was not Hermione. Hermione was alternating between cursing that someone for leaving and thanking him for coming back and saving Harry.

            It took Harry several moments to catch his breath and recover before he realized that it was Ron who had saved him. Ron then went on to reveal that he had used Dumbledore’s deluminator to find them and that he had been trying to find them again since the day he left. Then it occurred to Harry that they had the sword and the locket and it was time to destroy a horcrux; he had the inexplicable feeling that Ron should do it, so he made Ron do it. It took a while, but then it was done, the horcrux was destroyed, and the three of them went back to their packed campsite to dry off and for Ron and Harry to change out of their wet clothes.

            Harry explained to Ron how it was that he and Hermione had come to be running after a doe patronus in the middle of the forest, because Lucius Malfoy was now on their side and had left them the sword and Draco’s wand. And while he was at it, he hit Ron with a mucus adnauseam curse, for Scorpius; the first spell he cast with Draco’s borrowed wand, which he thought was rather fitting.

            “Ow, what wa’ blat for?” Ron asked, pulling long, thick strings of mucus from his nose.

            “Draco had the babies. That was for my son, who wasn’t breathing, because you punched Draco while he was pregnant with him.”

            “Is ‘e dead?” Ron asked, giving up on the mucus for a moment and letting it hang heavily from his nose as he looked to Harry.

            “No, Lucius Malfoy saved him by taking him to muggles for help. The muggle hospital had him on some sort of breathing machine _for a week_ , outside the fidelius charm, where Death Eaters could get to him at any moment, except for the fact that Lucius was guarding him the entire time.”

            “That’ grea’! I ne’er bleally figured ol’ Lucius for the sort, but that’s bleally blilliant tha’ he did all tha’. You know Harry, sometimes these things just happen. I remember my mum telling me tha’ Charlie wasn’t breathing when he was born and the healers had to get him going.”

            Harry hit Ron with Ginny’s famous bat-bogey hex, which Ginny had taught him when he stayed with the Weasley’s over the summer. “No, this didn’t _just happen_! You happened. This is the baby you punched. He came out tiny and not breathing and he even has a deformed leg, because of you.”

            The bat-bogeys on top of the mucus were just too much phlegm blocking Ron’s air passages for him to be able to breathe properly, let alone talk. So instead of replying to Harry, he coughed, spat mucus and bat-bogeys to the ground, and pulled slime from his nose. He choked on a particularly bad bogey and began to think Harry had chosen these curses for a reason, to show him what it felt like to not be able to breathe.

            Hermione moved to help Ron, seeing that he was choking, but Harry stopped her, because he wanted Ron to suffer through it. And Ron’s choking only lasted seconds before Ron coughed up the bogey and pulled out another glob of mucus.

            “I’b,” cough, splutter, “sorry,” Ron said, before going into another coughing fit.

            That apology was strangely more satisfying for Harry than the others had been. “See to it that it doesn’t happen again. And see to it that you never even _touch_ my husband or my children again. The muggles don’t think the baby will be able to _walk_ because of you. Now I have one more reason why I need to bring this war to an end quickly, and that is because the baby needs treatment at St. Mungo’s to repair his leg. That’s if they can repair it, because at this point, we have no way of knowing if it’s repairable,” Harry ranted. He suddenly realized that ranting made him feel very good.

            Ron continued to cough and blow mucus and bogeys out his nose and Harry ranted some more, but then Hermione said, “Boys, um, this is all very interesting, but I’m getting very cold and we still haven’t moved camp sites, so I can’t set up the tent.”

            Harry’s thoughts turned to the fact that they had agreed to move again, because they didn’t want Lucius to know where they were any longer than necessary. Harry stopped ranting and helped Hermione take down the wards. Then Ron paused in his expulsion of bodily fluids and the three of them apparated away, only to reestablish the wards and set the tent back up. They made Ron keep the first watch, but then Ron had to stay up anyway, because of his phlegm predicament, so he might as well keep the first watch while he was at it.

            Harry didn’t fully forgive Ron for hurting the baby and Hermione was still mad at Ron for running away, but they did let him back into the fold. There was something so gratifying about having the sword, the real sword as evidenced by the fact that it destroyed the horcrux, and about having destroyed another horcrux. They were finally moving forward. They were getting closer to their ultimate goal; they just had to figure out where the last two horcruxes were. Malfoy Manor and the Lestrange family vault were their best two leads.


	12. Chapter12

            In the few weeks between the time Scorpius came home from hospital and Christmas, Draco and the Malfoy family got into a routine of baby care. Severus came by just after lunch to spend an hour with the babies and Druella covered the rest of the afternoon. Narcissa helped out all morning and Lucius was up with Draco during the night. Draco always needed help, because he was juggling two babies.

            Draco was on baby duty pretty much twenty-four hours a day and his breaks were usually spent sleeping or bathing, but the rest of the family had several hours of free time each day. Lucius used his time to work on the gifts he was making for his family with woodworking spells; a coat rack and two cradles. Narcissa spent her time making ornaments for the tree; she specialized in intricate designs made out of crystal beads. And Druella spent her free time the way she always spent it: telling stories about how things were back in her day and spouting racist tripe.

            The family was looking forward to the holidays and was delighted to have Severus over for a few days. They didn’t have a lot of presents to go around that year, but there was a lot of love and cheerfulness. Druella even got the old turn-style working and playing traditional pureblood winter solstice tunes. And Narcissa had surprised everyone by having a present for each of them hidden away in the storeroom.

            The one gift Draco gave his sons for Christmas that year was the muggle soothers. He wrapped a box up of blue and white soothers for Hyperion and a box full of Green and yellow soothers for Scorpius. They had a storeroom full of unopened things he could’ve given the babies, but they were too little to open presents or to be excited about them and everything they were old enough to use, was already out in the nursery. Except for the soothers, which they were supposed to be two weeks old to use and they were only just over three weeks old on Christmas day.

            Scorpius and Hyperion seemed to really take to their gifts. Hyperion was quite excited about his and took to waving one in each hand and saying, “Uh!” Scorpius was a bit less active and still slept most of the day, but now he did that with a soother in his mouth and was easier to put down in the first place. Not long after bringing Scorpius home from the muggle-hospital, Draco had discovered that Scorpius was even worse than Hyperion when it came to falling asleep on the teat and wanting to suck on something when he was asleep.

            Quite often the soothers had the problem of not staying in the baby’s mouth, because little baby hands would grab them and pull them out and not be able to find the hole to shove the soother back in. Then the baby would grow frustrated and cry and Draco would have to guide the hand with the soother back to the mouth. And while doing this for what must’ve been the hundredth time that Christmas, Draco began to think that he could improve the muggle toy with a bit of magic; a homing charm would help the hand get the soother back in. There might even be a market for them after the war, what with the tendency being to have more babies after a war.

            Two days after Christmas the family, including Severus, was sitting around the breakfast table enjoying the scones Severus had brought from the Hogwarts house elves, when Draco’s coin burned in his pocket. He was once again carrying the coin in the pocket of his robes and it usually just said, “I love you.” The simple message always made Draco smile and helped him get through his endless days filled with repetitive baby care. But today when he took his coin out it read, “I broke my wand.”

            Draco repeated the message to the table and then said, “He really ought to have a wand to defend himself. I’ll give him mine; I’ve got the other one.”

            “If you can find out where Harry is, I will take it to him. I have the Sword of Gryffindor I have been trying to get to him,” Severus said.

            “Alright, let me get my charmed parchment. We can meet in the study and go over the details,” Draco replied, before getting up from the table and going upstairs.

            Draco was just coming downstairs on his way to the study with his parchment when his father approached him, falling in line beside Draco as they walked. “I should still like to apologize to Harry. If we are communicating with him now, this might be just the time to do it. And the Sword and the wand cannot be known to come from Severus. It is crucial that Severus _not_ be compromised, but my position is already forfeit. I think it would be best if you were to tell Harry that I’m bringing the sword and the wand.”

            They were entering the study now where Severus stood near a desk upon which he had set out an opened bottle of ink and a quill. Severus heard the end of Lucius’ statement and agreed. The three of them discussed their plan and then Draco wrote to Harry. And because Harry had not noticed the parchment right away the first time, Draco sent a message through the coin too.

            Harry was skeptical and took far too long to reply. At one point Harry took so long that Draco had been convinced that something had happened to poor defenseless wandless Harry. But then Harry had replied and Draco had slowly talked Harry into it. Severus left the villa sooner than he had planned, but he had a sword and a wand to deliver, so he interrupted his last Christmas holiday and went. It went off with the slight hitch of Harry almost being drowned by the horcrux around his neck, but the Weasley boy was there and saved Harry, so Severus left without being found out and Harry was made to think it was Lucius.

            Severus went back to Hogwarts to check on the school and the children, but mostly to check in with the Death Eaters and keep watch on said Death Eaters, because he couldn’t have the Carrow siblings harming his students. The Dark Lord seemed utterly unaware that a piece of his soul had been destroyed, fixating instead on Harry’s escape from Nagini, and all was well with the school. And it was still the winter holidays with most of the students gone, so he went back to the villa and spent a few more days with the Malfoys.

            In the days following sending his wand to Harry, Draco found himself trying to bond with his new wand; the wand of Armand Malfoy, complete with walking stick and snake ornament, which he had inherited along with the title Lord Malfoy upon his father’s incarceration last year. The wand and walking stick always went with the title, along with the responsibilities as head of the Malfoy family. He had thought about giving it all back to his father when Lucius was released, but inheriting was never done in reverse and they hadn’t bothered to work out how to go about arranging it; it would take a lawyer for certain.

            Draco had a bond with his old wand, the one he lent to Harry, and the Malfoy wand just hadn’t worked as well for him before, probably because his father was still alive. Thus he had kept the Malfoy wand, but continued to use his old one. When his father got out of Azkaban and Draco wasn’t there to hand the wand over, Lucius searched Malfoy Manor and came up with his old wand, the one he had had before Abraxas’ death, before Lucius inherited the title Lord Malfoy and the Malfoy wand. And when Lucius finally did rejoin the family, he did not mention the wand or the title and Draco didn’t even think of it. But now Draco was thinking of it, because he needed the Malfoy wand to work for him.

            There were lots of things Draco used his wand for every day, such as summoning soothers, levitating soiled nappies, and various baby paraphernalia. His old wand had felt like an extension of his hand and without the connection, this new wand was like trying to operate a prosthesis. It worked, but it was slow, inaccurate, and imprecise; he desperately needed to bond with it to get it functioning properly.

            Draco tried using the Malfoy wand for several days, hoping to break it in through use, but when that didn’t work, he began to think about why this wand wasn’t responding to him. The answer to that was obvious: its previous owner, his father, was still alive. The wand was still recognizing his father as its rightful owner and there was only one solution he could think of to solve that problem. And no, it wasn’t to off his father.

            And so Draco challenged his father to a duel, gave Lucius the Malfoy wand to use and took Lucius’ old wand for himself. They went out to the patio in front of the snow-covered trellises of the dormant grape vines and cast warming charms to extend the area available for the duel. And the two Malfoy men dueled.

            In all honesty Lucius was not really trying to win. He knew his son was the rightful possessor of the Malfoy wand and that his son needed it. He was concerned for Draco’s health after giving birth not quite a month before and as such he absolutely refused to cast any dangerous hexes or curses. He considered his son inexperienced and without the option to seek help at St. Mungo’s, he would only cast spells he knew the counter to, if he cast any at all.

            Draco was determined to win. He knew he needed this wand to recognize him as its true owner and that his father was skilled and could handle himself. He did decide to limit himself to non-fatal spells that he knew the counter to, but other than that, he was going all out. Physically he felt fine. His stomach was completely flat again and showed no signs that he had ever been pregnant. The only sign there was of that was his pectorals that were ever swollen with milk. But he had just fed the babies and his breasts really weren’t that big, not even A cups, so that shouldn’t get in the way of his duel.

            Draco began with a serpensortia and the snake lunged for his father, before Lucius vanished it. Then Draco went with the jelly-legs curse, which Lucius blocked. He tried an expelliarmus, which Lucius dodged. By this time Draco had noticed that his father wasn’t casting any offensive spells, only defensive ones and clearly wasn’t trying. That made Draco mad, so he flung a levi corpus at his father, which took Lucius by surprise because of the speed of the attack and promptly turned the elder Malfoy upside down, leaving him hanging in midair by the ankle. Draco walked up to his father, recast expelliarmus again, and grabbed the Malfoy wand as it flew out of Lucius’ hand.

            “Well done,” Lucius said with his robes scrunched up under his elbows, revealing his trousers and undershirt.

            “Thank you, father,” Draco said, before using the Malfoy wand to cast the counter curse and letting his father down.

            Once Lucius was back on his feet, Draco handed over Lucius’ old wand, the one Lucius had been using since getting out of Azkaban, and set about testing the Malfoy wand. He worried for a moment that the duel wouldn’t do the trick, because his father hadn’t really been trying, but that worry was alleviated when the Malfoy wand obeyed his every command and began to feel like an extension of his wand arm. It wasn’t quite the same as his old wand, because although it worked beautifully, the magic hummed at a different frequency and with a richer tone; somehow stronger from the thousand years of use.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever noticed how all of the wands disappear during the war? Even if Ollivander is gone, where did his shop full of wands go? If Voldemort took them, then why didn’t he give Lucius a wand? It really doesn’t make sense that Lucius wouldn’t have a spare wand, given that Abraxas has only recently died and Lucius is using a wand inherited from his father. If it were me, I would’ve hidden my old wand away for a rainy day, so that is what I had Lucius do here. Then when Draco wasn’t there to return the Malfoy wand, Lucius pulled out his old wand. This way Draco is free to give his wand away to Harry, the way it is in the books.
> 
> Next chapter Bellatrix will go looking for the Malfoys. She’s staying at the Manor guesthouse, so how much damage might she do?


	13. Chapter13

            It was February and Lucius was reading in the study at the villa. Narcissa and Druella were having tea in the drawing room, while Draco and the twins were all down for their afternoon nap. The twins were two months old and didn’t sleep for long periods of time, so they would wake up first and when they woke, Druella and Narcissa would tend to them to let Draco have his rest. The twins were bigger now; Scorpius had almost doubled his weight and Hyperion had gain two pounds. Scorpius’ eyes were still grey, but Hyperion’s had turned a vibrant green.

            It was then that Nilbert the house elf appeared before Lucius in the study.

            “Master Lucius Malfoy, sir,” Nilbert said.

            “What are you doing here Nilbert? Aren’t you supposed to be tending to your duties?” Lucius asked as he tried to remember what exactly this elf’s duties were this time of year. This was one of the laboring elves, he was sure, but the vineyard and garden were frozen. The two dairy cows still needed tending to and there was the wine to check on and cheese to make.

            “Bellatrix Lestrange, ma’am, is at the guesthouse right now, sir,” Nilbert said.

            “Yes, I let her and the Dark Lord stay at the Manor guesthouse Nilbert.”

            “No sir, Bellatrix Lestrange, mam, is at the villa guesthouse, here in France, sir. She is looking for Master Lucius Malfoy, sir.”

            “Why?”

            “Bellatrix Lestrange, ma’am, said that the Dark Lord, sir, told her to find Master Lucius Malfoy, sir, and the rest of the Malfoy family, sir and ma’am. She already questioned the Manor house elves and searched Malfoy Manor for clues this morning, sir, before coming here. She is in a rage, sir, because the villa is missing, sir. She is tearing the guesthouse up sir!”

            “Let her. Tell the elves they are to stay away from her and if she calls for service, send Wispy only.” Wispy was a very old mostly useless house elf that Lucius wouldn’t mind if Bellatrix murdered in a fit of rage.

            Nilbert agreed and left and Lucius went to the drawing room to inform Druella and Narcissa of this turn of events. There was nothing to do for it but wait and hope that Bellatrix wore herself out without doing too much damage to Malfoy property.

            Later, when Draco woke up, Lucius informed Draco too of Bellatrix’s rampage. “Draco, did you leave anything behind at the Manor that could tell Bellatrix where we are?” Lucius asked.

            “No, I don’t think so. From what you said I think she’s figured out where we are from the fact that the villa is missing,” Draco replied.

            “Yes, I imagine that’s the case. But did you leave anything of value she might destroy? Something I ought to have the elves go back for and apparate here to keep safe?”

            “No. The only thing I left is the portrait of Merlin in the loo and Merlin knows it can’t be moved,” Draco answered. There was a permanent sticking charm on that portrait of Merlin, so it was impossible to take it with him.

            “The house elves will have to disillusion it, so that she doesn’t burn him,” Lucius replied, before calling a house elf with instructions to do just that.

            With that settled, there was nothing to do for it but wait and go on with their lives. Scorpius and Hyperion needed constant care and got bigger every day and the Malfoy family once again became engulfed in their day to day grind. Lucius kept tabs on Bellatrix and was disheartened to learn in mid-February of Wispy’s death at Bellatrix’s hands. After that the elves reported an incident in which Bellatrix went out to the farmland on the Manor grounds and began destroying the place, convinced the Malfoy family was living off of the produce being transported to them by the elves. They weren’t of course, because they were afraid of the food being tampered with or tracked, but Bellatrix didn’t know that; at least none of the elves died in the altercation, even if a few were injured. It wasn’t until the second oldest house elf, Cinders, died at Bellatrix’s hands in late February that Lucius decided dealing with his sister-in-law couldn’t be put off any longer. At least Bellatrix hadn’t discovered Merlin in the loo.

            “Maise!” Lucius called, summoning the new oldest Malfoy house elf to him. The old ones were the least valuable, but Lucius was running out of old elves. Maise wasn’t even that old, barely past middle-aged as far as elves were concerned.

            “Yes Master Lucius Malfoy, sir,” Maise replied, after apparating into the room.

            “Maise, I want you to lead Bella to the mirror in the bathroom in the guesthouse at Malfoy Manor. Only do so when the Dark Lord is away and likely to remain away all day. When she is in there alone, come tell me,” Lucius instructed.

            Lucius went about his day, helping his son care for his two precious grandchildren. Scorpius and Hyperion were young yet, but it was never too soon to start ingraining the proper set of principles into one’s heirs. Lucius was reading some of the works of the saint Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli to his family. Machiavelli was a muggle, but an ingenious one who the Malfoys had befriended in his day. That was back long before the International Statute of Secrecy was established, back when the Malfoy family had still consorted with muggles; not that the Malfoy family would ever admit such an association, but they did still read Machiavelli to their children.

            That is when Maise popped into the room and announced, “Master Lucius Malfoy, sir, Bellatrix Lestrange, ma’am, is in the bathroom and waiting, sir.”

            “You may go Maise,” Lucius said, dismissing the elf. “Alright, keep the boys silent. Cast a silencing charm on this room just to be safe.”

            “Alright. I know the story by heart, so if you need back up, come get me,” Narcissa said. She and Lucius had been discussing back up plans for what to tell her sister if worst came to worst and it became necessary to actually contact Bellatrix.

            Lucius nodded and then excused himself to the loo. The spell to link the two mirrors was complex and he hadn’t needed to cast it in years, but he was a skilled wizard and it wasn’t long before he got it. Bellatrix appeared dourly in the mirror.

            “See here little old elf! Explain to me right this minute why I am to wait in the loo,” Bellatrix shrieked indignantly.

            “Because I am under the impression that you are looking for me dear Bella. Did you really kill two of my elves?” Lucius asked sternly.

            “Come now Lucius! I had to; they wouldn’t tell me where you and Cissy are.”

            “And just why do you need to know?”

            “The Dark Lord asked me to find you and your family. I know you are in hiding at your villa in France; it’s disappeared!”

            “It’s true, we are at the villa, but I am not the secret keeper, so I cannot let you in to speak with me.”

            “Then who is?”

            “Cissy and she’s in far too delicate condition right now to trouble her with your petty problems.

            “Petty problems? It’s been almost a year since Cissy vanish and there has been no word from you in months!”

            “There is a reason for that.

            “Ah yes, there is always a reason for a Malfoy to turn traitor, isn’t there?”

            “You are mistaken Bella, I am ever loyal to our Lord. Circumstances have prevented me from serving him, but I left him my house. I hope he has made proper use of it.”

            “Come now Lucius; we are at war here! The fate of the wizarding world lies upon us. What could be more important than that?”

            “My son is dying,” Lucius answered solemnly.

            “That is what Severus said _last_ year. Surely the boy can’t _still_ be dying, can he? If he was going to, he would’ve done so by now!”

            “How cruel of you to look so callously on your own flesh and blood.”

            “Alright, I’m all ears Lucius; just what is dear nearly dead Draco dying of now?”

            “The same dark curse that nearly killed him last spring. The Potter brat _cursed_ him with it. Cissy and I mend the wounds frequently, but they pop back open all the more insistently. We had hoped he would get better with time, but he only grows worse every month. The progress is very slow, but I fear I won’t have very many months left at all to tend to my ailing son before he slips from my grasp.”             
            “I’m sure that must be awful for you,” Bellatrix said, not sounding all that concerned at all, “but why can’t Cissy tend to the boy and you return to serve our Lord. Or is he no longer your Lord too?”

            “He will always be my Lord! But Cissy is incapable of caring for anyone right now.”

            “How’s that? She’s always been better with a healing charm than you Lucius.”

            “That she is, but she’s pregnant,” Lucius revealed and that news finally gave Bellatrix pause. He quite enjoyed the speechless expression on her face. “With my heir incurable and slowly dying, Cissy and I had no choice but to create another. She’s growing a bit old for it, but I was able to brew up a fertility potion that did the trick. Only trouble is that with her age, the stress of the war, and the horror of losing our son, it’s turning out to be a very difficult pregnancy indeed. Eventually she’ll have the baby and Draco will…pass on…and I will return to my Lord and serve him. I can only hope that he can still find a use for me when the time comes. Do pass along to him my regrets.”

            Before Bellatrix could stop flapping her mouth about like a fish and formulate a response to that bit of surprising news, Lucius canceled the charm on the mirror, breaking the connection. He smiled to himself as he imagined his sister-in-law raging at the mirror in his absence. He was fairly certain he would need to repair that mirror upon his return to Wiltshire; maybe even replace it.

            Lucius went back to his family and when he entered the room, little Scorpius called out, “Hi, hi, hi, hi!” and it was almost as if the baby was saying it to his grandfather. But Lucius knew that the twins were always babbling and more often than not, it was the word hi. Still, Lucius did like to dote on his grandsons. “Hi Scorpius. Did you miss your Grandfather?” he asked, taking the baby from Narcissa, who was holding him.

            “How did it go dear?” Narcissa asked.

            “As well as can be expected, Cissy. Only time will tell,” Lucius replied.

            “Severus will be here in a few hours; maybe he will have good news for you,” Draco suggested hopefully.

            And so the Malfoy family waited for Severus Snape. Three hours later Severus arrived and Lucius relayed the news of his conversation with Bellatrix, but it was too soon for Severus to have news. In fact, it wasn’t until almost a week later when Severus was called to report before the Dark Lord that he was able to come back with news of Bellatrix and the search for the Malfoy family.

            “The Dark Lord claims to be a merciful Lord; he has granted you more time Lucius to deal with your family situation. He proclaimed that you have until Narcissa’s baby is born to return to him. Once the baby is born, Narcissa will be expected to look after both it and Draco, if he is still alive by then, leaving you free to serve our Lord. Of course he doesn’t know when Narcissa is due to deliver, so practically that means another eight months before the search for the Malfoys will resume,” Severus said.

            Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the good news and the Malfoy family celebrated. Hopefully the war would be long over in another eight months, but one never did know with these things. At least they were being granted another eight month reprieve before Bellatrix destroyed anymore Malfoy property. Their lives were important, of course, but they were relying on the Manor and the farmland surrounding the Manor to survive intact, not to mention the elves; elves were bloody expensive to replace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone else find the idea of Merlin being hung in the loo hilarious?
> 
> Were you surprised by the Narcissa pregnancy ruse Lucius told? It seemed the obvious choice to go with, because they really would need a new heir if Draco really were dying.
> 
> Please Review!


	14. Chapter14

            Harry said the name. He was just so happy to have heard Fred and George’s radio broadcast that he hadn’t been thinking about it, he just did. He said Voldemort’s name out loud and the name was taboo, leading the snatchers right to them. Hermione’s quick thinking with the stinging jinx bought them time, but their wands were taken and he, Ron, and Hermione were all taken to Malfoy Manor. Only the Malfoys weren’t there and Harry was technically a Malfoy.

            Bellatrix greeted the Snatchers at the gate and let them in. Rodolphus Lestrange and Mr. Goyle were inside. There was some argument over whether or not Harry was really Harry, but then Bellatrix and the others caught sight of Hermione and Ron and had them pegged. There was arguing over who would get the honor of summoning Voldemort, but then Bellatrix saw the Sword of Gryffindor in the possession of the snatchers and put a halt to summoning Voldemort.

            Bellatrix set to torturing Hermione while the other prisoners were imprisoned in the cellar. With the sounds of Hermione screaming overhead and Ron shouting Hermione’s name, Luna freed them from the ropes with a nail. Harry reached into his drawstring pouch he kept around his neck and pulled out Dumbledore’s useless snitch and his broken wand, before finding his Protean charmed galleon and parchment. He went to activate the coin and send a message to Draco, but he didn’t have a wand. He turned to the parchment and said, “A quill: I _need_ a quill or something to write with. Anything.”

            But all Luna had was the nail; no quill or pencil, or writing implement of any kind. Harry tried to activate the coin with wandless magic, but had no luck. Hermione screamed up above their heads and an idea occurred to Harry in his desperation. He shoved his precious personal items back into his drawstring pouch.

            “I’m a Malfoy; I’ve rights to this house. The house elves have to obey me,” Harry said, mostly to himself as he tried to figure out what to do.

            “Call one of them,” Luna suggested calmly.

            Harry looked at Luna gratefully for the suggestion. He had been so worried about her after the debacle at her father’s house when he found out that she had been kidnapped. But she was alive and right here with him and he was going to take her back to Xenophilus. He was just about to take her advice when they heard Hermione claim the sword was a fake and Rodolphus say to get the goblin. Harry turned first to the goblin and begged him to lie and claim the sword was a forgery.

            Once the goblin was taken upstairs, Harry called out, “Malfoy house elves; I require your assistance.”

            Since Harry had not called for one of them, but all of them, a dozen or so house elves popped into the cellar. There was some quick discussion with the house elves, but Harry soon asked if the elves could apparate them away. The elves could and Harry instructed one of them to take Mr. Ollivander, Luna, and Dean somewhere and Ron supplied the where of Shell Cottage. The one elf left, but plenty remained with Harry when the Death Eaters upstairs heard the crack of disapparation and sent Wormtail down to investigate.

            Then Harry ordered another house elf to cause a distraction in the drawing room and a third to disapparate them all away to Shell Cottage once they had Hermione, the sword, and their wands.

            Wormtail came down and was killed by his own prosthetic hand. Ron now had Wormtail’s wand and they went up the stairs to the drawing room. One of the elves unscrewed the chandelier, creating the distraction and then disapparated Ron and Hermione away. Mr. Goyle in his fervor to replace his own wand, which Voldemort had destroyed, had collected two of the wands from the snatchers, as well as Bellatrix’s wand when it flew out of her hand. Harry wrestled all three wands away from him. Then Harry went to Griphook, who was still clutching the Sword of Gryffindor, and yet another house elf disapparated them away, but not before Bellatrix could throw her knife into the chest of said house elf.

            Harry arrived at Bill and Fleur’s cottage by the sea. One of the house elves died, but the other two went back to Malfoy Manor; Harry buried the small body in a grave in the sand he dug himself. Hermione, Ron, Luna, Dean, and Griphook were all safe, if shaken up with their various injuries, but they had the sword, and they had wands. Ron had Wormtail’s wand, while Harry had gotten Draco’s, Hermione’s, and Bellatrix’s wand off of Mr. Goyle.

            They stayed at the cottage, learning news of the outside world and recuperating. Something Bellatrix had said to Hermione had her convinced that there was a horcrux inside the Lestrange family vault. They had looked into this lead before, when Draco had first mentioned it, but the vault was heavily protected and they had no way in. They didn’t have a way in now, except a crazy plan that would never work, but they did have a plan, a goblin, a hair from Bellatrix herself, and Bellatrix’s wand.

            And so Ron, Hermione, and Harry broke into Gringotts, stole a horcrux from one of the most heavily protected vaults there were, and escaped on the back of an old blind dragon. Voldemort’s fury led Harry to the next horcrux, the one at the school. The three friends apparated to Hogsmeade and were given shelter in the HogsHead by none other than Aberforth Dumbledore, who showed them the secret passageway into the room of requirement, where Neville and their friends were hiding out. The room of course looked nothing like the lilac beach room he had shared with Draco, but was full of hammocks for the refugees to sleep in.

            Luna and Dean arrived first, having gotten a message from Neville. Then more reinforcement arrived in the form of the Weasley kids and more members from Dumbledore’s Army. Reinforcements were good, but Harry still didn’t know where to look for the horcrux, other than it was in the school, so he asked for advice. Luna told Harry about the story of Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem and took Harry to the Ravenclaw common room, where they were discovered by the Carrows, who summoned Voldemort.

            Professor McGonagall vanquished Snape and Harry questioned a ghost, which eventually led Harry back to the room of requirement as the battle raged on outside the castle and more reinforcements, from both sides, arrived. Ron and Hermione were there, with a destroyed cup and several basilisk fangs in their hands. And then the three of them entered the room of requirement, which was once again turned into the room of hidden things.

            They were searching for the diadem when Crabbe and Goyle showed up, minus their leader. Draco’s henchmen were a bit like chicken with their head’s cut off now that they were without him. Crabbe wanted to kill Harry, while Goyle just wanted the glory from bringing Harry in. Crabbe started the fire and Harry and Ron grabbed brooms. Ron, Hermione, and Harry managed to rescued Goyle, while Crabbe and the diadem were left to burn.

            And then they were out of the room of requirement and safe with all of the inanimate horcruxes destroyed. They only had Nagini left and then it would be Voldemort himself. The three friends went off into the fray of battle to reach the snake. Then Hermione asked Harry to use his scar and his connection with Voldemort to find out where Voldemort was, because the snake would be with Voldemort.

            Harry looked and he found Voldemort in the haunted shack with Mr. Goyle, whose face was bruised and eye was swollen shut after being punished for the part he played in letting Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape from Malfoy Manor. Mr. Goyle was asking about his son Gregory. All of the other Slytherin children had been released through the secret passage from the room of requirement to the HogsHead, but Gregory was not with them and Mr. Goyle was very worried about him. He had given his wand up to Voldemort prior to the battle of the Seven Potters and was now without a weapon and without a means of rescuing his son from the castle. Voldemort told Goyle to stop grumbling about Gregory and sent the man off to fetch Snape.

            Harry returned to his own body and told his friends what he had seen and they began to make their way down the castle stairs and down the tunnel guarded by the Whomping Willow. Voldemort was there talking to Snape; Voldemort had Dumbledore’s wand, the Elder wand, but the wand wouldn’t work right for him, because he was not the wand’s true owner. Voldemort’s solution was to feed Snape to Nagini, besting the man who had bested Dumbledore. But although Snape had killed Dumbledore, Dumbledore had already been bested before that by a young boy in his office when he had rather oddly requested a duel.

            Harry gathered Snape’s memories into a flask and took them back to the headmaster’s office to use Dumbledore’s pensieve. It was then that he learned of Snape’s relationship with his mother, how they had been best friends and how Snape had loved her. He learned of how Snape had tried to save the Potters and had begged Voldemort to spare them.

            But Voldemort couldn’t do that, because the boy had to die. The one thing Voldemort did do was offer Lily a choice and that choice had allowed Lily to sacrifice herself for her only son, invoking the old magic which had protected Harry. Snape’s request had helped Lily save Harry. Then Snape went on to be Harry’s greatest protector, always behind the scenes, but protecting Harry when no one else did. Snape was continuing to protect him, because down to his dying breath, Snape had lied to Voldemort and let Voldemort believe that Snape was the master of the Elder wand, when in fact it was Harry.

            Snape hadn’t murdered Dumbledore, but granted an old man’s request for death. Dumbledore was dying already, from the hand, and had asked Snape to do it, to spare him the pain of the curse. Harry didn’t really know what to make of this and there were so many new facts to digest, so he pushed it aside and moved onto the next flash of memory.

            Snape had sent Harry the Sword of Gryffindor and Draco’s wand, not Lucius Malfoy. Snape was the owner of the doe patronus, but he let Harry think it was Lucius. Snape had seen Draco since Dumbledore’s death. Snape was the secret keeper for the Malfoys and Snape had kept Harry’s new family safe. Snape had even delivered the babies and told Narcissa and Lucius to go to the muggles for help. And just the day before, Snape had held a little blond baby in one arm and a raven haired baby in the other. It was the first glimpse Harry ever got of his sons and Snape, like so much else in his life, had given it to him.

            Then Harry learned of Dumbledore’s betrayal; how Dumbledore had been grooming Harry like a lamb being led to the slaughter. Harry had a piece of Voldemort’s soul in his scar, which meant Harry had to die, because Harry was a horcrux. There were two horcruxes left and they both had to go: the snake and Harry. Voldemort was waiting out in the forest for Harry at that very moment and Harry would go.

            Harry told Neville to kill the snake as he walked down the front steps. He finally figured out Dumbledore’s blasted riddle and what words he must say to open the snitch. He said them and got the ring. He turned the Deathly Hallow over in his hands and his dead family surrounded him; his mother, his father, his godfather, and even Remus.

            Harry thought then about the living family he was leaving behind; Draco and the babies. He was going to die without ever seeing his sons with his own eye and that glimpse of them from Snape would be the last glimpse he would ever see of them. But it was better this way, because Voldemort would never know of their existent and Voldemort would be dead soon. Harry would be dead too, but Draco and the boys would go on. Draco would remarry and his sons would grow up happy, never knowing what they had lost.

            And then Harry was in the clearing in the forest and he let Voldemort kill him. There was King’s Cross Station and Dumbledore, while the bit of Voldemort that had been inside Harry gasped its last breaths. Harry thought death was next, but when Dumbledore told him he could go back, Harry jumped at the chance, because he still had two sons to meet. His consciousness reentered his body and Voldemort too came back. Mrs. Goyle, the obese woman who had come to the school looking for Draco, was there standing over him, guarding him. He could hear her labored breathing.

            Voldemort ordered Elizabeth Goyle to check on Harry and the woman leaned down with a grunt and whispered, “Is he alright? Up at the school, is Greg still alive?”

            Harry nodded ever so slightly and Mrs. Goyle lied to Voldemort in her desire to have Gregory back. Voldemort ordered Hagrid to carry Harry’s body and together they marched back to the school, with Mrs. Goyle trailing behind slowly with her heavy, but determined steps.

Neville challenged Voldemort, pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, and slashed off Nagini’s head.

            A herd of reinforcements arrived and Harry slipped out the invisibility cloak, covering himself up as the crowd was distracted. The giants and centaurs forced the wizards into the castle as the final battle started. Molly killed Bellatrix and in his fury, Voldemort turned his wand on Molly. But Harry was quicker, saving Molly with a shielding charm, before he threw off the cloak and revealed himself. Harry dueled Voldemort, defeating the dark wizard with a simple expelliarmus. Then it was all over and Harry was looking around him, checking to see which of his friends had made it through and which were dead; so many were dead. Remus, Tonks, Fred, Collin, Lavender, and the list just went on and on.

            Mr. and Mrs. Goyle had found Greg Goyle and Harry saw the family flee from the castle. Then there was someone else there, approaching him. A tall blond who he hadn’t expected to see was walking towards him; someone he hadn’t seen since Sirius’ death and the battle in the Ministry for Magic.

            “Hello son. Draco sent me to bring you home,” Lucius said, reaching out a hand to shake with a wide smile on his face. “I don’t think these people will miss you and my grandsons are waiting to meet you, but perhaps we can send an owl to the Daily Prophet tomorrow letting them know that you changed your name?”

            Harry didn’t know what to say or do at first; he just nodded dumbly. But then he returned Lucius’ handshake and said, “Yes sir, I’d very much like to see Draco and meet my sons. How are they?”

            “Magnificent. Being a grandfather is really quite wonderful,” Lucius answered, leading Harry out of the Great Hall.

            “Harry dear, where are you going?” Molly Weasley asked, just as they were approaching the entrance hall.

            “To meet my sons. My father-in-law is taking me,” Harry said.

            “That’s right; you married the Malfoy boy last year. But your sons, dear?” Molly asked.

            Harry nodded and Lucius answered, “Yes, Scorpius and Hyperion Malfoy. Draco gave birth to them while Harry was away.”

            “I didn’t even know Draco was pregnant. You’ll have to bring them by the Burrow,” Molly said.

            “We will do no such thing. Scorpius nearly died three times because of what your son did to Draco and now Scorpius has the deformed leg and may never walk. I should thank you to keep your offspring away from my heirs,” Lucius said.

            “Wh- huh? I assure you I don’t understand,” Molly said.

            “Draco was pregnant when Ron punched him in the stomach last year, Mrs. Weasley,” Harry explained.

            “Oh dear. I’m so sorry to hear that,” Molly said.

            “Tell Ron and Hermione where I’ve gone. I’m going to take some time off to spend with my family,” Harry said.

            “Yes, spoken like a true Malfoy, now let’s get you home,” Lucius said.

            “Bye Mrs. Weasley and I’m so sorry about Fred,” Harry called back over his shoulder as Lucius once again pulled him towards the entryway.

            As Lucius and Harry walked past the Black Lake and towards the front gates, Harry thought of something that was bothering him. “Sir, why is it that you came? I thought Draco was going to use the parchment he left me to tell me where he was hiding?”

            “Draco is not the secret keeper, so he cannot tell you. He only told you that so that you would keep the parchment with you, which allowed my son to communicate with you whenever he wished. The plan was to get you home and then the next time Severus, who is our secret keeper, came over, he would give you the secret.” Lucius didn’t know what would happen to the fidelius spell now that their secret keeper was dead and thought there was a chance the spell had ended with its caster.

            “Oh,” Harry said. He thought about it and it sounded right, so he continued walking. “But then how will I get in?”

            “I shall take you by side-along.”

            “You’ll take me directly to Draco and not try to kill me first?”

            “Look at your parchment.”

            Harry stopped walking for a second as he removed his parchment from his pouch around his neck. Sometime during all of the chaos he must have missed the burning, because the parchment now read, “Harry, I’m sending my father to come get you. Please go with him.” It was Draco’s writing and it was signed, “-Love your husband- Draco Malfoy.”

            Well that was good enough for Harry, so he tucked the parchment back into his pouch and continued walking towards Hogsmeade.

            Once Harry and Lucius were outside the gates, Harry took Lucius’ arm and Lucius side along apparated them to the Malfoy villa in France.

            “The boys should be just up from their afternoon nap,” Lucius said, before leading Harry upstairs to the nursery, where Draco was sitting on the bed, holding a baby boy in each arm.

            The twins were now six months old and had grown much larger since their births. Hyperion weighed sixteen pounds and was a chubby, happy baby who greeted Harry with a smile and said “Da da da da da,” while pounding his opened little palm against Draco’s arm. Hyperion’s eyes were green and his hair was messy and blond. Scorpius was smaller, both thinner and shorter than his brother. Scorpius had light grey eyes and neatly groomed black hair that lay flat on his head. Scorpius greeted Harry with a screeching wail and squirmed in Draco’s arms, trying to get away.

            “Calm down, Harry; you’re upsetting Scorpius,” was the first thing Draco said to Harry after a year apart.

            “What? I didn’t even say anything,” Harry replied confused.

            Scorpius continued to wail and Draco said to Lucius, “He’s not calming down, is he?”

            Then Draco stood up and handed a struggling Scorpius over to his father. He grabbed the strap of the breast pump machine, slinging it over his shoulder, before taking a happy Hyperion to Harry. “Come on, let’s go downstairs; my father will watch Scorpius,” Draco said, tugging on Harry’s arm to get him to move.

            “But I want to see Scorpius too,” Harry protested, but followed Draco downstairs. “Why is he crying?”

            “Because you wouldn’t calm down,” Draco explained, leading Harry into the drawing room. “He’s sensitive, Harry. He can feel your magic crackling and hissing. You just killed the Dark Lord and he can tell; you scared him.”

            “I scared him?” Harry asked. He was sitting on a sofa next to Draco, who still had the blond baby in his arms.

            “Harry, you’ve _felt_ magic before, right?”

            “Um, yeah, I guess,” Harry answered, thinking back to something Dumbledore had said to him in Voldemort’s cave by the sea about feeling the dark magic in the place.

            “Most people can train themselves to become attuned to the different feel of magics, with dark magic vibrating at a different pitch than light magic, yeah?”

            “I never really thought about it, but yeah, I guess.”

            “And like any other skill, some people are born with a natural talent for it; Scorpius is one of those people. He can feel your magic crackling and sparking like a storm before the thunder and lightning; I can feel it on you,” Draco said, letting his fingers hover millimeters above Harry’s skin.

            “You can?”

            “Yes, Malfoy, I can,” Draco said, before leaning in and kissing Harry, Hyperion clutched to his side so that he didn’t smash the baby. Draco wasn’t nearly as sensitive to magic as Scorpius was, but Harry’s magic was practically screaming to the world. “You know, I think I like calling you that.”

            Somehow the name fit Harry like a glove. After all that fretting about changing his name last year, now that the time to switch had come, he found the change welcome. His new name came with the return of his family and signaled his acceptance into said family, even by Lucius Malfoy. He didn’t even have to think about it to know that he wanted to be a Malfoy. The Malfoys, after all, had turned out to be the type of family he wanted to join; the type of family who put its members first and protected its weakened members against even the most grave threats of attack. He could never forget that while the war raged, it was the Malfoys who had guarded, protected, and cared for Draco and the twins. All of Draco and Lucius’ past crimes would forever be forgotten by Harry for the simple fact that they had managed to keep Scorpius and Hyperion safe.

            “I think I like it when you do,” Harry replied, looking down at the very wet little hand that was getting saliva all over his arm. “Can I hold him? Is this Hyperion?”

            “Yes and yes,” Draco answered, handing Hyperion over. “I was telling him that his da da, as he calls you, was coming to see him today.”

            Draco handed over the baby and for the first time, Harry held his first born in his arms. “Hello Hyperion. Daddy loves you so much and I’m never going to go away for so long ever again. Were you a good boy for your father?”

            “He’s a perfect little boy. Severus is always telling me how much like your mother he is.”

            Harry remembered then Snape’s memories of his mother. “I’m glad; he loved her, you know.”

            “No, I didn’t. I thought you’d be mad that I’d lied to you about him being with us. I wanted to tell you, but you couldn’t know; he couldn’t accomplish what he needed to unless the Dark Lord trusted him.”

            “No, I’m not mad. In fact, I’d name Hyperion after him if I hadn’t already suggested Hyperion.” There were so many people who had died since the last time they had discussed names; so many people he would name a son after.

            “I’d be honored to name our son after him; we haven’t turned in the paperwork.”

            “Really? You’d do that? Name him Hyperion Severus instead of Hyperion Draco?”

            “Yes. It was Severus who saved them by stopping the preterm labor twice and then delivered them. It was even Severus who originally had the idea to go to the muggles for help if something went wrong and then when something did go wrong, he sent my mother and father off to the muggles straight away.”

            “Brilliant! I’d love that.”

            “I thought you hated Professor Snape; I never would’ve thought you’d name our son after him, although I’m glad you changed your mind. He’s a big part of our lives and it’ll be easier if the two of you can coexist.”

            “That was because I didn’t know. He sacrificed himself for me today, so that I could defeat Voldemort.”

            “How so? Where is he?”

            “He’s dead Draco; Voldemort killed him.”

            “No!!!” Draco screamed, jumping up and away from Harry, the black bag flopping against Draco’s side as he went. “That can’t be; he was just here. He missed his visit today, but he promised to come by tomorrow.” Thick tear tracks were running down his face now.

            Harry stood up, holding the baby with one arm and put the other arm around Draco, before kissing the tears away. He led his husband back over to the sofa and held Draco in one arm while Draco broke down in grief, sobbing into his shoulder.

            Draco let himself cry over his loss for a good while, but then he pulled himself together, because for the first time in almost a year, he had his husband there with him again. When he finally calmed down, he was once again sitting next to Harry and the baby on the sofa. Hyperion was utterly clueless as to what had happened. “You have absolutely no idea what is going on, do you?” Draco asked his son. “You probably think Uncle Severus is going to come by to play with you any minute now.”

            “Uncle Severus?”

            “Yeah, we started calling Professor Snape that. He really took a liking to the babies, especially Hyperion. When Scorpius was in the hospital, it was Professor Snape who stayed with me and did most of the taking care of Hyperion while I recovered. Uncle Severus is pretty much Hyperion’s favorite person.”

            “Then I’m glad you made his middle name after Snape. He must’ve been the bravest man I ever knew.”

            “Well yes, he was that. Now that I think of it, Severus Hyperion Malfoy sounds like an excellent name and I haven’t filled out the birth certificates yet.”

            “You’d do that for me? Change his first name?”

            “Yeah. Then it’d be Scorpius and Severus; it sounds better, doesn’t it?”

            “It does. Hyperion and Scorpius sounds good too though.”

            “But Hyperion doesn’t have any suitable nicknames. Did you know the muggles tried calling him Ryan?”

            “No. I would think Hyper,” Harry suggested.

            “No, just no. But if Severus is the first name, we can call him Sev.”

            “Sev is a good name, although he doesn’t seem to have a very sever personality.”

            “No, Scorpius is the more sever of the two. Hyperion is the happy one. His Uncle Severus was always saying how he has his grandmother’s smile and infectious laugh. He said Hyperion looks just like your mother.”

            “He would know; he was my mother’s best friend.”

            “I didn’t know that.”

            “He kept his secrets close to the vest.”

            “Yes, he did. We’re going to miss him. I’ll certainly be glad to have another Severus around the house.”

            “Yeah. I’m glad he looks like my mum; before he was born I was thinking it’d be nice if they had some of my mum’s features. Did either of them get anything of my dad’s?”

            “Hy- I guess I need to get used to calling him Sev now, isn’t that right little guy?” Draco said, talking to the baby for a second, before turning back to Harry. “Sev has your father’s follicle structure and Scorpius has your father’s hair color. I’m rather upset neither of them got his blue eyes.”

            “Well hopefully the next one will have blue eyes. But follicle structure?”

            “You haven’t noticed that it’s completely impossible for me to make Sev’s hair lay flat? You’d never know I brushed it before you came. I haven’t tried grooming charms, because he’s too little, but you’re gonna have to take him and have his follicles permanently rearranged. I asked mother and she said they can do it as early as the second birthday.”

            “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”

            “There is and we already talked about this and agreed that it’s necessary.”

            “We did? I wasn’t here.”

            “Hyperion and I talked about it. Mother, father, and Severus did as well. Everyone agreed that it was for the best. And it wouldn’t hurt to make it a double appointment and send you in too.”

            “I kind of like my hair.”

            “Think about how much time it’ll save to have it fixed,” Draco said and the baby dripped drool onto Harry’s arm, while making happy noises.

            Harry looked down at his happily babbling son in his arms. “Wow, you really do talk a lot,” he said, trying to figure out if there were any words in the sounds or not.

            “He said his first real word last week when Uncle Severus was holding him,” Draco said looking at his husband holding his son and bonding. Then the grief hit him again and he let out another sob and a few more tears.

            Harry wasn’t too sure how to comfort someone else in their grief and he had a lot of grief of his own; for Snape, and for Fred, Tonks, and Remus as well. He ended up pulling Draco’s body closer to his and encouraging Draco to lie Draco’s head down on his shoulder, holding the baby on the other side of his lap. The baby babbled and wiggled and then started bouncing up and down. Then a chubby hand reached out and grabbed a fist full of Draco’s hair.

            “Ow, not father’s hair please Hyper- um Sev. You know the rule: no pulling,” Draco said and then let out another sob.

            “What word did Sev say?” Harry asked, now that Draco had calmed down a bit.

            “Oh, yeah, he said elf.”

            “Elf?”

            “Well yeah, he loves the elves, even more than he loves Uncle Severus. The elves watch out for him when I set him down; you know, stop him from getting into things or getting hurt. But then he likes to go after them; he can’t go that far or that fast, but he can scooch forward. He’ll gum the elves if he can get a hold of one, especially when he’s cutting a tooth.”

            “Do you have teeth then, little man? Open up and show Daddy,” Harry said, tickling a finger under the baby’s chin. Sev opened his mouth and let out a squeal of delight, showing Harry a gummy smile with two front teeth. “Wow, two of them already?”

            “Yes, and let me tell you, they are sharp. Scorpius doesn’t have any yet, thank Merlin.”

            “Do you bite your father? I won’t have you mistreating my husband; I’ll get you a teething ring if you need something to chew on.”

            “I’ve had to switch him to the bottle; my poor nipples couldn’t take it anymore.”

            “Are you still, um, you know with Scorpius?” Harry asked, not sure how to approach the subject of breast feeding when Draco had been so determined to ignore the topic before.

            “Yes and I’m still feeding Hy-um-Sev too, I just pump it first and then feed him the bottle,” Draco said and the baby started a long string of babbling B sounds.

            “That’s great. Really great,” Harry said. He wanted to ask Draco how long Draco planned to keep the breast feeding up for, but he couldn’t figure out how to broach the subject. He was also curious as to what Draco’s chest looked like underneath the robes, but he didn’t ask that question either, figuring Draco would take the robes off eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry is finally home! I’ll be slowing it down again, now that the war is over and the events are different from the books. Harry and Draco have a lot of adjusting to each other to do.
> 
> What do you think of naming the baby Severus? I’d planned to change Hyperion’s name all along, which is why Harry and Draco spent so long waffling about what to name him: they hadn’t thought of the perfect name yet.


	15. Chapter15

            “Oh, by the way, I have something to return to you,” Harry said, pulling out Draco’s wand. He had used the Elder wand to repair his old phoenix feather wand, so he didn’t need Draco’s wand anymore.

            “You can keep it; I’ve got the Malfoy wand.”

            “I don’t need it anymore. I used Dumbledore’s wand, which was the Elder wand from the eldest Peverell brother and one of the Deathly Hallows, to mend my wand.” Harry pulled his own wand out to show Draco.

            “You’ve got the Elder wand? Can I have it?” Why was Harry offering Draco his old wand back, when Harry had the Elder wand?

            “I _had_ the Elder wand, but after I repaired my wand, I broke the Elder wand and threw the pieces into the Black Lake. But you can certainly have your wand back.” Harry handed the Hawthorn wand back to Draco, who took it and held it.

            “Why did you do that? It was one of the Deathly Hallows! A priceless irreplaceable magical artifact!” Draco was thinking that this type of thing was the reason purebloods didn’t want muggleborns around, because they do stupid shite like destroy one of the Deathly Hallows.

            “Sorry, but I wanted to break the cycle of death and destruction caused by that wand. It’s too powerful for any one wizard to wield, so I destroyed it. Next time a dark wizard rises to power, the Death Stick will be out of play.”

            “You sound like destroying an irreplaceable magical artifact is something that happens every day and isn’t a big deal.”

            “Well…um…”

            “What? Don’t tell me you had more magical artifacts in your possession and you destroyed those too.”

            “I had to, to defeat Voldemort. He made them into horcruxes, so to destroy him, I had to destroy all of the horcruxes.”

            Draco wasn’t familiar with the term horcrux, so Harry explained it and then went on to tell Draco what the horcruxes were.

            “You destroyed Hufflepuff’s cup, Ravenclaw’s diadem, Slytherin’s locket, the Elder wand, and the stone of the second Peverell brother? You almost had all of the Hallows of Death!”

            “Actually, my invisibility cloak is the cloak from the third brother, so I owned all three Hallows, I just didn’t physically have them on me at the same time. I think that’s why I lived last night after Voldemort hit me with the killing curse.”

            “You survived the killing curse again? Isn’t this your third time now?

            “Fourth. What killed Voldemort was when the killing curse he aimed at me backfired and hit him.”

            “Do me a favor and don’t make it a fifth time; you’ve practically given me a heart attack.”

            “Deal; no more killing curses,” Harry agreed.

            “I wish I had the Elder wand.”

            “I can’t get you that, but I can give you the Hawthorn wand that foiled Voldemort with a simple expelliarmus.”

            “Yeah, this wand practically defeated the Dark Lord. It may not be the Elder wand, but it’s always been a good wand. I’ll keep it for when Scorpius becomes Lord Malfoy and I pass him the Malfoy wand.” Draco put the wand in his wand pocket for storage; he’d put it in a secure location later.

            “I thought the first born would be the Malfoy lord.”

            “But the title comes with the Malfoy wand, which comes with a cane and Hyperion won’t have actual need of a cane, when in all likelihood, Scorpius will. I talked to father about it and he said that since they are twins born at the same time, I can choose whichever one I want to be the next Lord Malfoy; if they weren’t twins, then I’d have no choice and have to give it to the first born. To me, Scorpius has always seemed like the Lord Malfoy. Besides, Professor Snape said something about leaving the Prince family artifacts to Hyperion and Hyperion looks more like your family, so I thought it’d be good to give him the inheritance from the Potters and the Blacks. I didn’t think it would be much and I figured we’d have to come up with a lot of galleons and fix up Grimmauld Place, but the invisibility cloak of the third brother is a pretty big deal. Add in a few Black and Prince relics and it’ll probably rival the Malfoy inheritance that Scorpius is getting.

            “Yeah, that makes sense. Their inheritances won’t be identical, but they’ll be equivalent.” Harry agreed.

            Harry and Draco sat on the sofa in the drawing room playing with their first born son for a few minutes more when they heard a wail come from upstairs. Moments later, Narcissa came to the stairwell and announced, “Draco, Scorpius is hungry.”

            “Will you be alright watching Hyperion for a bit? If you have any questions you can call Mother.” Draco gave the baby a kiss and then stood up.

            “Yeah, sure,” Harry answered.

            Draco went upstairs and retrieved Scorpius from his parents, removing the breast pumps in order to let his baby latch on. While Scorpius was suckling, Draco changed the collection bottles on the breast pump, calling an elf to take the two full ones. He had several months without needing the contraption, but once Hyperion had started teething, Draco turned back to the pump. It was easier just to keep the breast pump on under his clothes most of the time, so that he could pump while going about his life. He had gotten used to the process and barely noticed it anymore, although it was quite relieving and refreshing when he did take the contraption off. But then the pressure of unpumped milk would build up and that was painful.

            “How is Harry, darling?” Narcissa asked, once Scorpius was settled into nursing.

            “Fine, I guess,” Draco answered.

            “I think it’d be best to contact the Prophet tomorrow and for Harry to give an interview; the two of you can announce your marriage and the births of your children at the same time they announce the victory of Harry Malfoy,” Lucius said.

            “Yeah, I guess I should talk to him about that,” Draco replied.

            “I’m just going to go downstairs and wait with Harry. It’s an unfamiliar house after all,” Narcissa said.

            Draco agreed, so Narcissa left the room. Lucius talked for a few minutes about all the things that really must be listed in the paper tomorrow. Then Lucius decided that tomorrow might be too late, because with something this big, the Prophet was sure to release a special evening issue.

            Lucius was just getting up to send the editors an owl, to make sure they had Harry’s last name right, when Draco remembered Severus and his loss hit him with a throbbing pang of grief again. “Did you, ah, were you aware Severus died today?”

            “Yes. I ran into the Goyles in Hogsmeade; charming Elizabeth needed to take a break and catch her breath after all of that walking. Charles told me what happened. It was awful, truly, what the Dark Lord did to their family when they were nothing but loyal followers. Charles defenseless without a wand and Elizabeth forced to come out of the house to find her only son. I should count myself lucky to have a son who made me see the light before I lost everything,” Lucius answered.

            “Did you know what he was planning? Severus, I mean; was he planning to sacrifice himself all along?” Draco asked, letting silent tears fall down his cheeks, but then summoning a tissue and wiping them away.

            “He wasn’t suicidal; he would’ve come back to us if there was any other way, but yes, if it came to that, he was planning to die to protect Harry and defeat the Dark Lord. I think he was just surprised the Dark Lord hadn’t killed him sooner.”

            “But why Father? Why’d Severus have to die? Why couldn’t someone else do it? Why didn’t anyone from the blasted bloody Order do it?”

            “Because of the wand. Dumbledore had the Elder wand all along and the Dark Lord wanted it. He took it from the old man’s tomb, but it wouldn’t work for Him, because He wasn’t its true owner. He thought Severus was, because Severus killed Dumbledore, so he murdered Severus quite horribly. But what He didn’t know, what Severus told me yesterday before he left, was that Severus wasn’t the true owner. Harry had bested Dumbledore in a duel days _before_ Dumbledore’s death. Harry was the true owner of the wand the Dark Lord was using and Severus was counting on that making all the difference when it came to the final battle. I don’t know for certain what happened, but from what I heard, it seems that it did.”

            “I wish it didn’t have to be him; I want him back so much. It seems like this can’t be real, like Severus is going to apparate into the room any moment now. I can’t believe I’ll never see him again.”

            “I wish it weren’t so. He was a good man and I will be eternally indebted to him for what he did for you and your mother in my absence.”

            “Harry and I were talking,” Draco started but didn’t continue.

            “Hmm,” Lucius urged Draco to continue.

            “We were thinking of changing Hyperion’s name. Severus Hyperion, instead of Hyperion Draco. We can call him Sev.”

            “I think he’d like that. I’ve never seen him happier than when he was holding Hyperion. He told me he thought Hyperion was aptly named, because the boy shone like the sun and lit up the world with his presence.”

            “He lit up Severus’ world. Harry told me Severus and Harry’s mother were best friends. That must be why he was always talking about Sev looking like her.”

            “I’m sure it is, although I still say I see a lot of your mother’s family in the boy. He looks like the Rosiers to me.”

            Draco knew that it was difficult for Lucius to admit his grandson looked like a mudblood; the man was still coming to grips with the less than stellar blood purity of the babies. There was the occasional halfblood in the Malfoy family tree, but never anyone less than three generations removed from muggles, while Harry was only second generation wizard on his mother’s side. And even then, the Malfoys always hushed it up like a horrible secret and pretended that their blood was as pure as it could be. It seemed that Lucius had a similar way of coping with this situation and was pretending the problem didn’t exist. Thus Hyperion looked like Grandmother Druella’s family, since he didn’t look like any of the rest of them. And Draco was fine with ignoring the issue and letting his father have his little delusion.

            While Draco was upstairs, Harry was still in the drawing room with the baby. Harry started with examining his young son, trying to take in the little features he had been longing to see for so long. He searched for a resemblance to himself and to Draco, but he found little. The little face was far to round and the features not nearly sharp enough to be Malfoy-esque. Narcissa too was too thin and sharp in the face to match. Harry thought he saw a bit of himself in the curve of the cheek, but truly who this baby reminded him of was Dudley and the baby pictures Aunt Petunia had up. Although, the features weren’t quite the same and he hung on to that small favor, because he didn’t want to compare his son to his whale of a cousin.

            That got Harry thinking of the Dursleys and wondering whatever happened to them in hiding. The war was over, so they were probably going back to their house on Privet Drive and were happy to be rid of the freaks.

            Harry didn’t waste much thought over the Dursleys and his mind quickly drifted to Fred when Fred, George, and Ron had rescued him from Dudley’s second bedroom. He still couldn’t believe Fred was gone. What would the Weasleys do without Fred? What would he do? Fred was like an older brother to him; it was Fred and George who had gotten him the sex book. It was Fred and George who had gifted him the Marauder’s map. It was Fred and George who had provided him with distractions in fifth year when he needed them. Fred and George were always there for him and now it was just George.

            Harry sat there with a very active baby on his lap as he thought about Fred. Sev hit him on the face with a spittle coated hand, saying, “Daaaa ahhh da dat da ah uh eeee da.”

            Narcissa came downstairs and found Harry looking forlorn and contemplative. She sat down next to him and asked, “How are you, Harry dear? Today must have been awful for you, I’m sure.”

            “It was. So many people died today.”

            “Yes, I imagine a great many good witches and wizards died today.” Narcissa waited a minute to see if Harry would say something about who precisely he was missing or if it was bloodshed and corpses in general, but Harry just nodded. “I will greatly miss Severus. Is there anyone you are thinking of, dear?”

            Seeing Narcissa made Harry think of her sister Andromeda Tonks and from there, Tonks and Remus. “Severus’ death was awful, but it wasn’t just him I lost and I was never really that close to him; I couldn’t be. I was just thinking of Fred Weasley. And then Tonks and Remus died today; they have a new son. He was showing me a picture of him today. Teddy. He said they made me the godfather.”

            “Oh yes, Andy did write me about that. It’s been so awful for her this year with Ted gone, but I had no idea about Dora and her husband. How awful it is for little Teddy; orphaned already and he’s not even as old as Hyperion here.”

            “I want to be there for him. I’m the godfather; I should be there for him.”

            “We can firecall Andy and invite them over. This villa is full up and I’d feel horrible about not being able to offer her a guest bedroom, but little Teddy can stay in a basinet in the nursery and there’s the spare bed in there that Andy could use. I planned a late supper today; we were going to sit down to eat as soon as Draco finishes feeding Scorpius, but there is always room for more.”

            The baby was babbling B now around his fingers, which he had stuck in his mouth. “Ba baa ba ah dah b aba bla ah bab.”

            “That would be nice. I don’t know if she has much other family,” Harry said.

            “Why don’t I use the floo and ask her over and you can give Hyperion his bottle. He does that, tries to eat his fingers, when he’s hungry you know.”

            “Oh, I didn’t know. Should I get some milk from Draco?”

            “No. You can, but there’s plenty of the stuff and I find it easier to ask a house elf to bring a bottle of it. Mipsy!” Narcissa called.

            A house elf appeared and Narcissa asked for a bottle. Sev reached out towards the elf and grunted, throwing his weight away from Harry in his efforts to get the elf. The elf snapped its fingers and a bottle appeared in its hand, which it handed over to Narcissa, before disappearing again, causing Sev to let out a loud squeal. “Mipsy already warmed it up,” Narcissa said, handing it over to Harry.

            “Thank you,” Harry said, taking the bottle, which was made out of heavy glass.

            It had been so long since Harry had done this that he wasn’t sure about it at first, but then it was just a bottle and there was no trick to it really. Sev was bigger and more active than the doll in the room of requirement but he was still just a baby and the bottle still went in the same hole. Sev grabbed onto the bottle and pulled, urging him along. He took the hint and inserted the nipple into Sev’s mouth. Sev held on with both hands and he wondered if he should let go and just let his son do it or if the bottle was too heavy. It was made out of glass and he thought it might hurt Sev if it fell. He wanted to ask Narcissa about it, but when he looked up, Narcissa had her head in the floo, talking to her sister. He decided to error on the safe side and just hold the bottle for the baby.

            Narcissa pulled her head out of the flames and said, “The news had just reached Andy. She was all alone with the baby and received an owl from Kingsley informing her of the deaths. She’s heartbroken, but she agreed to come over after supper; she has to get their things together and she already ate before she heard the news.”

            “Oh, okay,” Harry said, not knowing what else he should say.

            “I’ll just go upstairs and direct the house elves to prepare for their arrival,” Narcissa said, before doing just that.

            Harry was left in the drawing room feeding the baby. When the bottle was empty, he set it down and burped his son, although it was rather awkward with such a large baby and Sev didn’t think he should sit still for it. Sev’s little feet kicked and his little hands fisted Harry’s jumper and all the while Sev grunted and fussed. Then Sev got his little feet firmly planted on Harry’s lap and kicked out at the same time as he pushed and Harry almost dropped the baby, but caught onto him at the last second.

            “What’re you doing, Sev? Stay still so Daddy can burp you,” Harry told the baby, but the baby just fussed and whined and didn’t burp.

            Draco came downstairs then with Scorpius on one hip and the bag with the breast pump on the other and he noticed Harry trying to burp Sev. “He won’t be burped, Harry, you missed that faze by months. But if you want you can put him in his highchair and feed him a cracker,” Draco said, standing in the entrance to the sitting room.

            “Yeah, alright. Does he eat anything besides crackers?” Harry asked, standing up with Sev and walking towards Draco and Scorpius. He was relieved when he was standing right next to them and Scorpius didn’t cry.

            “Yeah, mashed foods mostly. We still have a bit of winter squash and jarred grape mash we saved for them, although now that we can send the elves to the store again, we can see about trying something new. Something green I should think; I haven’t had peas or green beans in ages,” Draco said, leading Harry to the dining room.

            “What have you been eating here?” Harry asked, hoping his family hadn’t been starving while in hiding.

            Draco put Scorpius into the highchair with the green sea turtles and then helped Harry do the same with Sev and the blue highchair.

            “The first lettuce and cabbage were harvested recently and that was a treat. The grapes haven’t come in yet, so it’s mostly cheese, milk, and dried pasta. We save the crackers, the jarred grape mash, and the squash for the boys and the bread for cheese sandwiches for lunch. We have jarred tomatoes left, so there’s tomato and cream soup. Breakfast is mostly yogurt or oatmeal with milk and grape juice, although even the oatmeal we’re running low on, but we have all the milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream we can eat,” Draco said, before calling a house elf and asking for crackers for the babies.

            “What were you planning on doing for food next year if I didn’t end the war when I did?” Harry asked as Draco handed him two crackers for Sev and gave two to Scorpius.

            “The vegetables in the garden will be up soon and then the grapes will come in. Mother had the house elves plant some corn this year that we were looking forward to and of course the carrots, broccoli, and green beans will be nice, but mostly it’s tomatoes. We’re up to our ears in tomatoes and grapes all summer. The squash is of course set aside for the winter and there’s always more than enough dairy products to go around. We still have more dried pasta, and Severus promised to smuggle in more oatmeal and wheat soon. The house elves would stretch the oatmeal and wheat if Severus couldn’t get more and it came to that. It’s less nutritious if you stretch it, but we would’ve lived.”

            “Why so much tomatoes, grapes, and milk?” Harry wondered, watching Sev tear up the cracker with his two teeth. Scorpius too was gumming a cracker, but wasn’t demolishing it as totally as his brother.

            “Tomatoes because we’ve always had tomatoes in the garden; giant ones that rival the school’s pumpkins, milk because of the two dairy cows we have on the property, and grapes because this is a vineyard. We use the grapes grown here to make all our wine. We let it age for decades in the very expansive cellars and have the house elves bring it up as needed. When the cellars get too full, we sell the excess off, but mostly we keep it for the family first.”

            “Have you been drinking wine with dinner every night then?”

            “Since I was ten, yeah, but not since you knocked me up. I can’t drink while breast feeding, you should know that.”

            Harry had forgotten about the breast feeding for a moment and felt stupid for asking. He was about to apologize when Narcissa called out, “Draco, Harry, where are you, dears? It’s time for supper.” Then Narcissa was in the doorway to the dining room. “Oh there you are. Lucius, they’re in here.”

            Lucius appeared at the doorway behind Narcissa and they both came in and took their seats around the table. Then an old lady came in and said, “So this is the halfblood scum who Bella was raving about. I was telling Cissy that she really ought to have had more children, so she could afford to disinherit Draco for marrying beneath him.”

            “Er,” Harry said, not really sure who this woman was or how he should respond to that.

            “Don’t mind mother, Harry, no one else does. She lost Bella today and she’s worse for it,” Narcissa said.

            “And you Cissy! You should be ashamed of yourself, carrying on like this is a happy occasion when that halfblood scum you call a son-in-law just killed your only sister! Bella may have been crazy, but at least she was loyal to the cause.”

            “Druella, if I’m not mistaken, you agreed to come and stay here with my darling Cissy and our halfblood scum of a son-in-law, as you put it, so perhaps it would be best if you were to hold your tongue?” Lucius asked.

            “Yes mother, do sit down for supper,” Narcissa said. And the food arrived at the word supper, emphasizing her point.

            Druella sat and Harry leaned over to Draco and asked in a whisper, “Isn’t Andromeda also your mum’s sister and isn’t she still alive?”

            “Grandmother Druella doesn’t count her; it’s best not to mention it around her. It’s best not to mention anything around her really, or she’s liable to go off.”

            “Oh, I’m sorry. Is my presence making it worse? Perhaps I shou-,” Harry started to say, but Draco cut him off.

            “Perhaps you should shut it and eat something. You’re not going anywhere; Grandmother is worse today because of Aunt Bella’s death, that’s all. It has nothing to do with you,” Draco said, stabbing a bit of lasagna with his fork.

            “That’s not true! He probably killed her himself!” Druella accused with a long knobbly finger.

            “Mother!” Narcissa scolded.

            “Actually, ma’am, it was Mrs. Weasley who killed Bellatrix,” Harry said.

            “Weasley? Which one?” Druella asked, suddenly losing all of the color in her cheeks.

            “Molly Weasley,” Harry answered.

            “Molly Weasley. I think I just lost my appetite,” Druella said, getting up from the table and leaving.

            “Don’t mind her Harry, please dig in. We are all thrilled to have you here with us. You are one of the family now and we expect you to live with us. I would like my mother to remain nearby to keep an eye on her, but now that the war’s over she can go back to her house,” Narcissa said.

            “Grandmother isn’t always this bad and she’s been rather helpful with the babies,” Draco said in between bites of food.

            Harry didn’t know how Draco was able to eat when so many people had just died. He looked down at his slice of lasagna and began to think the old lady had the right idea about not eating. “I hope you never left them alone with her.”

            “All the time,” Draco answered.

            “Oh,” Harry said. He wanted to order Draco to never do that again, because he didn’t trust her. Worst case scenario she would harm them for being impure and best case scenario she would indoctrinate them into pureblood nonsense. But now wasn’t the time for that discussion.

            “If you’d like, you can take over her afternoon shift while I have my nap. Otherwise I wouldn’t advise complaining when you haven’t been here and she has. Besides, I know she loves her great grandsons,” Draco said.

            “Um, yeah, I’d like to spend loads of time with them, if that’s alright,” Harry said.

            Draco agreed and then Sev finished tearing through his crackers and started banging on the trey, making screeching sounds.

            “Hey little guy, are you always this active?” Harry asked his son.

            “Just when he sees we have food and wants some, but he can’t have any, because of the cheese sauce and these noodles aren’t mushy enough,” Narcissa explained.

            “Is there anything he can have?” Harry asked.

            “Did he finish that bottle I gave you?” Narcissa asked.

            “Yes.”

            “Then he already ate. He’s not hungry; he just wants to try everything,” Narcissa explained.

            “Oh.”

            “Harry, if you want you can feed them tomorrow,” Draco offered.

            “Oh, I just ordered the elves to go shopping, so there should be something new for them by tomorrow,” Narcissa said.

            “You can clean up the mess too,” Draco added.

            “How messy are they?” Harry asked.

            “Scorpius is the calmer, neater, cleaner of the two, but Hyperion has gotten in the habit of flinging his food about lately. He likes to finger paint with it,” Draco answered.

            Then Lucius said, “I sent the owl off to the Prophet informing them of Harry Malfoy’s location and asked them to make sure they get the spelling of the name correct. They owled me back a request for an interview as soon as possible and a promise of a free evening paper. It is of course completely up to you, Harry, whether or not you would like to do the interview; just let me know and I’ll send your reply back to them.”

            “Um, no, I don’t really want to give any interviews,” Harry said.

            “Would you mind if I did give one?” Draco asked.

            “No, I guess not. What are you going to tell them?” Harry asked.

            “I could tell them whatever you want me to, but I thought they would have questions about our secret marriage and the children. I’ll keep it short, just tell them how we were hiding out and the role we played in the war, behind the scenes. I reckon I deserve that order of Merlin, what with it being my wand that defeated the Dark Lord,” Draco answered.

            “I hate interviews and I’m sure they’ll be beating down my door with requests after this; I wouldn’t mind if you did all the interviews actually. I could write you out a short description of how I defeated Him and who helped and you could relay it for me. But I _hate_ the Prophet; I’d rather give the first interview to someone like Mr. Lovegood. His daughter Luna helped me during the war,” Harry replied.

            “We are investors in the Prophet. It makes sense financially to give the story to them first, although I see no reason why Draco can’t give two interviews and also give the story to Mr. Lovegood. But Harry, if there is a problem with the Prophet, I’d like to hear about it, so that I can demand any changes that need to be made,” Lucius said.

            At this prompting, Harry went off on his dislike of Rita Skeeter and the way the Prophet just printed whatever sensationalism that would sell the most copies, irrespective of the truth.

            When Harry finished his rant, Lucius said, “So what you’re saying, Harry, is that there is a market out there for a newspaper that only prints facts and truths, with reporters who have scruples.”

            “Yes!” Harry exclaimed. Maybe the Quibbler printed nonsense, but they never told lies about people.

            “That’s a refreshing idea. If I put together the operation, would you be willing to oversee it on a day to day basis and make sure that your ideals are being upheld?” Lucius asked, not just to take Harry’s mind off of the paper that had printed many of those false stories at Lucius’ personal urging, but also as a way to keep young Harry from causing trouble or putting himself in any more danger. If Harry had a job with a paper, then he couldn’t be an Auror, which wasn’t an appropriate job for a Malfoy.

            “Um, no sir, I wanted to be an Auror. Can’t you find someone else to run it?” Harry asked.

            “No, no, that will never do. Either it must be you, or it will turn into another Prophet and we can’t have that. If you ever change your mind, do let me know,” Lucius said. He didn’t want to throw money away on a boring paper that no one would ever read that didn’t print what he wanted when he needed publicity spun in his favor, unless it was keeping Harry out of trouble. “In the meantime, I’ll arrange for Draco to give an interview tomorrow.”

            After that there was some discussion between Draco and Lucius regarding business plans after the war, because they both thought now was the time to expand and move into new markets and buy up old companies who no longer had anyone left alive to run them. Lucius asked Harry if Harry had any interest in investing and business and Harry informed Lucius of his status as the sole investor in Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Lucius approved of the company and the young talent, even if he couldn’t say the same of the Weasley family as a whole. But what Lucius was not impressed with was the way Harry had just given the money to the Weasley twins without a contract and insisted that he go down with Harry to meet with the surviving twin to write something out. Harry didn’t like the idea, but Lucius cited Harry’s need to provide for his young family and said he was sure they could come to an agreement that was fair for all involved.

            Harry grudgingly agreed, but refused to do it anytime soon, because George had just lost Fred.

            After dinner, Narcissa flooed over to her sister’s house and came back with Andromeda and Teddy. Teddy was only two weeks old and sporting lime green hair and blue eyes; at least his hair was lime green when they came through the floo, but it kept changing all night. They gathered in the drawing room and there were many tears, hugs, and condolences over their many losses.

            Lucius was the first to leave the room, saying he had business to attend to, and really he did; he had to make certain the Malfoy family came out on top at the end of all of this.

            Andromeda asked about her mother Druella, but Narcissa assured Andy that the old woman had gone to bed for the night, still upset over Bellatrix of all people. Andy would likely have to deal with her estranged mother in the morning, but Narcissa thought Druella was ready for a change of heart and to take her daughter back; that was before Bella’s death and Narcissa didn’t know how Bella’s death would change things.

            Harry held his godson Teddy for the first time and Andy held her two great nephews for the first time. Teddy was so tiny and Harry wondered if his children had ever been this small. He asked Draco and Draco told him that Sev had been smaller and Scorpius had been half the size of Sev, which Harry had a hard time believing.

            Andy was in a bit of disbelief herself that Draco had been pregnant and then had twins all without anyone knowing, but she was accepting enough of the situation and spent far more time bemoaning the loss of her daughter than worrying about what she had missed.

            After about forty-five minutes, Draco announced that it was bath time for Scorpius and Sev and gave Harry the choice as to whether to come or stay with Andromeda and Teddy. Harry looked to Andromeda, a woman he barely knew, but whose grief he so thoroughly understood, before looking to his boys, who he had never seen before today.

            “Go on dear; I know you haven’t had a chance to see them before. I’ll be here for a few days, so we have plenty of time to catch-up,” Andy said.

            Harry nodded and followed Draco, taking Sev as they went up the stairs and into the nursery bathroom. Unlike a regular bathroom, this room only had a bathtub in it, without all of the other fixtures. There was a towel rack on the wall, a cupboard, the tub, and that was it. It was strange, but this was the Malfoys, so anything was possible. “No toilet?” Harry asked.

            “No, it had a toilet, a urinal, and a sink, same as all of the other bathrooms, only they’re not needed, so they’ve been concealed. It provides more room and eliminates unnecessary hazards. They’ll return and be fully functional with a simple spell,” Draco explained, before showing Harry how bath time was done with the aid of two baby seats for the tub, now that both of the boys could sit up. Draco took some soap for Scorpius and passed the bottle to Harry and asked, “So my cousin really made you the godfather then?”

            “Yeah, I guess they did.”

            “I don’t mind if you want him to come live with us, but that’s something you need to discuss with my aunt; she’ll likely want her grandson with her at least part of the time. Just let me know what the two of you decide.”

            “Really? You’d take Teddy in?” Harry asked surprised. He hadn’t imagined Draco to be so generous as to take Teddy in when Draco didn’t know Tonks and Remus was a werewolf.

            “Yes; he’s family and family is very important to Malfoys.”

            “But I thought your Aunt was blasted off of the family tree?”

            “And now that the war is over, my father will have her added back on; one era’s blood traitor is another era’s key to saving face.”

            “Oh. But you really won’t mind if we take him in? Another baby will mean more work.” And if they were to take Teddy in, then they might as well take Andy too, so that she wouldn’t have to be separated from her grandson.

            “He’s around the same age as our boys, so it won’t be that bad. The only problem I foresee is a matter of room in the Manor; however you cut it, there are only four bedrooms and I had planned on mother and father living with us. If we take in Teddy, then that will make four children and four adults in four rooms.”

            “Oh, then I guess asking your aunt to move in is out of the question.”

            “Certainly. She can floo over whenever she wishes, but the Manor simply doesn’t have enough room.”

            “I thought you lived in a mansion.”

            “You’ve been there right?”

            “Yeah, but I didn’t get the tour.”

            “Well it’s really not as big as we let on. It’s a Manor, not a mansion.”

            “The boys will have to share a room then.”

            “All three of them in one room? Sounds like life fit for a Weasley.”

            “Well do you have a better idea?”

            “We can make it work when the children are young, but if Teddy really ends up over more often than not, then my mother and father will have to move here permanently. But that will mean a much higher ratio of children to adults and a lot of the help that we’ll need on a day to day basis will be a floo call away, instead of right there. We could still make it work, but I’d like some warning.”

            “Oh, okay, sure. I’ll try to bring it up, but I don’t really want to get into that sort of thing when your aunt has just lost her family. Her husband died before I escaped from the Manor; I’ve got your house elves to thank for that escape by the way, but one of them was killed by your aunt in the process.”

            “We know about the elf; the elves reported to us afterwards and informed me about what happened; I was just glad you all got away. I didn’t know about the prisoners in the cellar; that was rather repulsive to think about.” After that incident Draco had learned that his father knew of the prisoners in the cellar, but hadn’t done anything about it, preferring to let Bellatrix think she was in charge until the end. Lucius claimed he did it for Harry, so that Bellatrix and the Dark Lord would be caught unaware when Harry came bursting through the door, owning the place. It made sense, but in the end Harry hadn’t had the chance to take the fight to the Manor, which he was grateful for, because he didn’t want to have to repair his family home from the damages of war.

            “Yeah, Luna had only been there a few months, but Mr. Ollivander was there for some time.”

            “Look, about my aunt; I know it’s awful that she lost everyone, but I really do want to know what she plans to do with that baby and it does matter whether I know sooner or later. Have you thought about it that she won’t have milk to last forever? Who’s going to feed that baby? It’s gonna end up being me, I know it and that’s not a problem really, because I’ve got extra milk stored up that she can have. And Scorpius and Hyperion are moving onto solid foods and won’t need so much milk, so there will be enough to go around, but I don’t want to get attached to another baby if she’s not going to give him to us. If I’m gonna wind up being the father, fine, but if I’m more like the uncle the kid sees every other weekend, I don’t want to get hurt and Teddy can have his milk out of a breast pump, same as Hyperion. So find out what the plan is and if there isn’t a plan, make one.”

            “Oh, um, I hadn’t even thought of that. I’ll talk to her,” Harry promised, amazed by the fact that Draco was willing to give Teddy his milk, let alone take Teddy in and raise him like one of Draco’s own.

            “See that you do, Malfoy,” Draco said.

            Sev decided he wasn’t getting enough attention, so he smacked both of his little hands down onto the water, splashing Harry in the face. Both Sev and Scorpius laughed at that and Scorpius copied his brother, splashing Draco in the face. Harry and Draco smiled at their boys and finished up the bath. They rinsed the boys off and wrapped them in fluffy towels to dry them. Then it was time to dress the babies and Harry had to admit he had no idea how to put a cloth nappy on. Sev was wriggling all over the place and kept turning over and rolling away.

            “The key with Sev, is to do everything quickly, before he gets away,” Draco said, swooping in and quickly fastening the nappy into place.

            Harry looked over and noticed that Scorpius didn’t roll away and although Scorpius kicked his right leg and flailed his arms, Scorpius mostly lay still and let Draco dress him. Harry wanted to trade babies, but then Harry remembered Scorpius screaming at him when Harry first arrived and thought better of it. Thus Harry grabbed the onesie and tried to make do, dressing the squirming Sev.

            Draco left Harry to struggle with the clothes, taking Scorpius to the bedroom to breastfeed. While he was at it, he changed the collection bottles on the breast pump and ordered a house elf to prepare a bottle for Sev. Then he put the breast pump away, because he was embarrassed of what Harry would think if he knew Draco had turned into such a dairy cow; not that Harry had noticed yet, but it was bound to happen sooner or later and he was fine with it happening later.

            Harry finally finished the snaps on Sev’s pajamas and went looking for Draco. The door right next to the nursery was open and he found his husband inside, sitting on a large bed and breast feeding Scorpius. He was very curious about this, wondering everything from how Draco made milk without boobs to what Draco’s chest looked like without the baby attached. But he didn’t want to broach the subject or get caught staring, so he tried to concentrate his eyes on Sev.

            “There’s a bottle on the desk for Hyperion. You two can join me on the bed,” Draco offered.

            Harry seized the suggestion, quickly getting the bottle and sitting down next to Draco on the bed. Sev didn’t have much patience for him to get comfortable and was already grabbing at the bottle and squealing before Harry even sat down.

            “Draco, how often do the boys get up during the night?” Harry asked. Now that it was late and he was clearly in Draco’s bedroom, he was starting to wonder about tonight. This was their first night back together and he was certain to be able to get sex out of Draco; they were married after all and hadn’t had sex since their honeymoon. But if the boys were up every few hours, he didn’t know how that would work.

            “Once, but mother told me she would cover it tonight, so we can sleep in.”

            “Good. I have been up for two days now.”

            “That long? I’ll let you sleep in when I get up in the morning, but you never did tell me the details regarding what happened with the war,” Draco said.

            And so Harry started to tell Draco what happened, but only got a few sentences in before Draco stopped him and summoned a quill, parchment, writing desk and a pot of ink and said, “Write it down while you talk, that way I’ll have notes for the interview tomorrow; that is if you still want me to give it. I don’t remember you giving my father the okay to or not, but if you don’t want to talk to the reporters, then someone should or else they’ll make up stuff.”

            “Yeah, you can talk to them. I’m really exhausted, but I’ll write it down for you,” Harry said, trying to figure out how to hold a quill and a baby at the same time.

            “Here,” Draco said and sat Sev down on the bed between them and took over holding the bottle.

            “One baby is hard to juggle; two babies seem like a lot to me; I don’t know how you’ve managed,” Harry said.

            “It’s not that hard once you get used to it. Take feedings for example; getting them both nursing at the same time was tricky at first, but I had help and then I managed fine on my own. It was hard again when I had to stop nursing Sev and start giving him bottles, but he could sit up by that point, so I just sat him on my lap and gave him the bottle with one hand, and held onto Scorpius with the other.”

            “Sounds like you really might be able to manage with three babies. I was just thinking that it’d be impossible.”

            “Without help, yes, but I’ve got my family and now I’ve got you.

            Now that Harry’s arms were free, he began to tell Draco the details of his story and write out the basics. He got mixed up a few times in his delirium, but he eventually got the jist of it straight. Scorpius and Sev finished eating long before Harry finished his story, so Draco set Scorpius on the bed next to Sev and gave the boys a few toys to entertain themselves. And since Draco’s hands were free, he took over the writing part for Harry, because it was slowing Harry down.

            Scorpius started dropping off first, blinking his eyes and yawning, but Sev wasn’t far behind. Draco stopped Harry to put the boys to bed in the nursery. They had to be quiet, because Teddy was already sleeping in a basinet in the nursery, although Andy wasn’t there and was probably still downstairs with Narcissa. Harry watched over Draco’s shoulder as Draco laid the boys down, sang them a lullaby, and spelled on a nightlight.

            “I normally cast monitoring charms too, so that I know when they wake up, but mother will handle that tonight,” Draco whispered, before leading Harry back to the bedroom and then to the en suit bathroom; partly because he wanted a bath and partly because he didn’t know when the last time Harry had had one and he had no desire to share a bed with someone who was filthy.

            Harry noticed that this bathroom was similar to the one in the nursery, only with the addition of a urinal and sink. There was still no toilet, but then they were Peverell wizards, so they didn’t need one. The tub was a fancy clawed foot affair, but wasn’t the giant Hogwarts variety tub, so they barely fit and Draco had to sit in Harry’s lap. While they bathed, Harry finished telling Draco his account of the war and since Draco didn’t bring the parchment into the bath, Draco was trying to remember it all.

            While Draco was concentrating on Harry’s words and cleaning himself, Harry was ogling Draco’s body. He was very appreciative of Draco’s flat stomach that looked like it had never even been pregnant. The only sign of the pregnancy was Draco’s breasts, which looked plumped up and fuller and Draco’s nipples, which were grotesquely long; Harry imagined they got that way from constantly having a baby suck on them. Once he finished the part about how it was Voldemort’s own killing curse that back fired on Him, Harry reached out and stroked Draco’s left nipple, because he couldn’t take his curiosity any longer. He was surprised to see milk squirt out and Draco flinch.

            “Ow, no touching me there until I stop breast feeding, yeah? It’s bad enough they get sucked on all day; I don’t need you messing with them too.”

            “Sorry,” Harry said, pulling his hand back.

            Draco was silent then and since Harry was done washing himself and was horny, Harry took over the washcloth from his husband, rubbing the soap all over Draco’s soft flesh. His cock was hard and pressing into Draco’s back and he hoped Draco was hard too, because he could really use some release of his sexual frustration right about now. Trapped in a small tent with Hermione for months on end did not lend itself to sexual gratification, even of the self-induced type. But when his hand reached lower, he found Draco to be soft.

            Draco pulled Harry’s hand away from his bits and said, “Don’t.”

            “What’s wrong?”

            “I don’t know how you can even think about that when Professor Snape just died; and eaten by a snake! I’ve seen Nagini eat people and I can imagine the horror,” Draco answered, shivering in horror as he thought about it.

            Harry hadn’t thought about how hearing the details of Snape’s death would affect Draco. It was part of what had happened and Harry had relayed it and that was it. Now he wished he had thought more of how Draco would react to hearing it. “I’m sorry. I know he meant a lot to you; I lost a lot of people in this war too,” Harry said, wrapping his arms around Draco.

            Draco allowed Harry to hold him and the two of them stayed like that in the tub until the water grew cold. Harry cast a warming spell, but the two of them were done anyway, so they got out and dried off.

            Harry decided that he wouldn’t ask Draco again for sex tonight, but then when they were putting on pants and pajama bottoms, Draco passed Harry a shrunken sex basket, saying only, “Here, I took this from the school for you.”

            That act really sent Harry mixed signals, because he thought it meant Draco wanted sex after all, which was more than alright with him. “Thanks,” Harry said, unshrinking the basket. He got out and unshrunk the applicators and the conditioning and soothing potions, but didn’t think he’d need the stretching one again. He was just reaching for one of the vials of contraceptive potion when Draco stopped him.

            “What do you think you’re doing, Malfoy?”

            “Um, is this the wrong one? I thought the orange one was next; I already took the red one last year.”

            “Those are yearlong contraceptives and you’re supposed to be carrying my baby by the end of the year,” Draco said, taking the orange vial out of Harry’s hand and putting it back in the rack.

            “But you don’t want to get pregnant tonight, right? I mean I just got back from the war and it’s too soon. I assumed we’d wait a few years after having the boys.”

            “I assumed you’d be pregnant next year.”

            “Ah, I was hoping to go into Auror training in the fall. Well I hadn’t planned on it, because of course that depended on the war ending, but, yeah.”

            “Oi, you can’t start Auror training in the fall; I expect you to be pregnant in the fall.”

            “That soon? I thought you’d want to wait a while, especially if we have Teddy.”

            “Well if you want to put it off until later, I don’t see how you’d possibly be able to have a career with the Aurors.”

            “What do you mean? I thought we agreed that you’d stay home with the kids until they were five.”

            “Well if you wait ten years to have our daughter, I’m not staying home for fifteen years.”

            “Okay, not ten, but maybe three.”

            “Still, even if it’s only three, you’ll be home breast feeding so long that there wouldn’t even be any point in starting.”

            “Huh? Isn’t it just one year to have the baby and another year to stay home breast feeding?”

            “Is that what muggles do?”

            “Sometimes. Normally they don’t bother staying home at all and give the baby formula.”

            “Well our babies won’t be fed muggle food; it’s bad enough Scorpius drank two ounces of it when he was first born.”

            “Okay, but still, that only lasts a year, right?”

            “What do muggles feed their babies after the first year? Cow’s milk isn’t safe until the age of three.”

            “Three? You mean witches breast feed for three years?”  
            “Yes. It’s not so much work after the first year, because of the solid food in the diet.”

            “Muggles give children cow’s milk after the first year. I thought that you were only going to breast feed for the one year.”

            “No, I was going to do the full three with the twins and finish off the last two years with our daughter, so that you could start Auror training in two years. But if you aren’t going to be pregnant next year, then I’m not going to be breast feeding forever and you’ll just have to do the three years yourself.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll get pregnant in this coming year then.”

            “Not too soon though; I want to finish my NEWTs before our daughter’s born.”

            “Yeah, sure thing.” When Harry had agreed to carrying the next baby, he never thought it would come this soon. Truthfully he had never thought it would go this far and now he was wondering if he could get out of it somehow. But if he put it off, Draco would expect him to breast feed for three years and he didn’t want to do it at all. On the other hand, if he got hold of a few contraceptive potions, he might be able to fool Draco into believing he was infertile as a carrier and then Draco would do all the child baring. Thus he reached back for the contraceptive potion in the rack and said, “So I’ll just take this now and get pregnant when it wears off.”

            “If you take that, you won’t be pregnant for at least a year. There are other contraceptives you can use; ones with shorter terms,” Draco replied, vanishing the rack with all the contraceptive potions before Harry could grab the orange one again; he didn’t want Harry accidentally taking one and getting out of carrying their child.

            “Do you have one ready that we could use tonight?”

            “No and we’re not having sex tonight, Harry; I already told you why. You can look up a contraceptive potion or spell tomorrow; it’s not like you have anything else to do while I go for the interview.” Draco didn’t particularly care if Harry had an accident and got pregnant a few months early, because he had already started reading the material for his history of magic NEWT, which was the most important one.

            “Okay. I did want to visit the Weasleys tomorrow and see George, but I can try to look something up before I go. But then why’d you give me the sex basket?” Harry asked confused.

            “So you could use the conditioning potion, which has to be used in advance. I doubt you’ve used it in the last year, so do it now and then you’ll be ready for whenever we do have sex.”

            “Yeah, okay,” Harry said, filling an applicator with the conditioning potion.

            “We need to put these up in the closet; I don’t want my mother and father to see them,” Draco said before calling a house elf to do it for him.

            While Draco was ordering the house elf around, Harry went to the loo and added the conditioning potion. Then he was back and they climbed into bed together.

            “What do you need to see the Weasleys for?” Draco asked snuggling into Harry’s side.

            “Fred died and I’d like to see George and Molly; the whole family really.”

            “Even after what Ron Weasley did to Scorpius? You know he can barely move that leg, right?”

            “I won’t take the babies with me and I’m not going for Ron, although I did hex him really good and we’ve sort of come to terms with it. But no, I didn’t know about the leg. How bad is it?”

            “Sev just started crawling, but he’s been getting up on his hands and knees for months now; Scorpius has never gotten up on his hands and knees. Sev has been rolling over since the age of three months, while Scorpius has never rolled over; he sits up and that’s about it. He kicks all over the place with his right leg, but he barely moves the left one. He likes to suck on the toes of his right foot, but he can’t get the left one into his mouth.”

            “When do you want to take him to St. Mungo’s? We need to see if they can fix it.”

            “I’ll make an appointment and get it done as soon as possible. Father is going with me tomorrow and we need to stop by our lawyer’s office and the Ministry. I’m not sure if we’ll have a chance to swing by St. Mungo’s or not; we’ll probably be gone half the day at least and I was counting on you staying here and helping Mother with the boys, Aunt Andy, Teddy, and Grandmother Druella.”

            “Alright, I’ll put my visit off until the day after tomorrow; I’ll send Molly an owl. I know she wanted to see the babies, but I won’t bring them.”

            “I have some pictures you could take to show her, but if Hermione’s there, there is something I’d like you to ask her.”

            “What?”

            “The muggles that saved Scorpius’ life; I’d like to give them a thank you gift. We didn’t have muggle money to pay them with at the time and they didn’t even ask for money; they just saved him and sent us the bill. That’s part of why Father needs to visit our family lawyer, because he needs to arrange payment on that bill. But even after we pay our bill, I’d still like to thank them and I don’t know what muggles like, so if you could ask Hermione what would be an appropriate gift, I’d appreciate it.”

            “Yeah, I’ll ask her,” Harry said yawning.

            After that Draco started thinking about his old head of house and how much he would miss Professor Snape. Then he remembered Harry’s description of the professor’s death and cringed in horror. He had tried to keep himself together all day for the boys, but now the boys were asleep and he couldn’t help but sob into Harry’s chest as he remembered his mentor and his protector.

            Harry noticed Draco’s quiet sobbing and suddenly the grief he felt for Fred, Remus, and Tonks was overwhelming. He held Draco tightly and silent tears trickled down his face. The two of them fell asleep like that, comforting each other in their grief.

            Draco wasn’t asleep for long when the pain in his chest woke him. He felt emotional pain at the loss of Professor Snape, but he also felt physical pain because he hadn’t pumped in hours; he didn’t want to do it in front of Harry. He silently crept out of bed, retrieved the breast pump from where he had hidden it, and put it on. He covered himself with his paternity robes, so that Harry wouldn’t be able to see, and crawled back into bed, setting the pumping machine on the floor beside the bed.

            Then Draco went to sleep for the night, knowing that the house elves would monitor the pump and replace the bottles as needed, like they did every night. They did it during the day too, but he still liked to change the bottles himself if he was thinking about it, so that he could pretend that the house elves hadn’t replaced the collection bottles untold numbers of times and he wasn’t such the dairy cow that he thought he was. The elves had gotten bottle replacement down to the point where he didn’t need to wake up in the middle of the night on those rare nights when his mother or father volunteered to get up with the babies. And during the day, he rarely even noticed the switch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of Harry and Draco adopting Teddy? Up next will be Draco and Lucius’ excursion into the wizarding world. Please Review!


	16. Chapter16

            Draco woke up at eight in the morning and got ready for his first day out of the house since he had brought Scorpius home and his first trip into wizarding society since he left Hogwarts last year. He was quiet and let Harry sleep in and was even nice enough to cast a muffling charm on the walls. He put on a clean set of paternity robes and changed the collection bottles on the breast pump, using the one set of bottles he had that had a wizard-space charm placed on them, because he would be out of range of the villa’s house elves.

            Mother, Father, and Grandmother Druella were up with all three boys having breakfast and Draco joined them. Scorpius and Severus were in their high chairs, while Teddy was lying in a cradle near Mother; Aunt Andy and Harry were the only people missing. Scorpius reached out for Draco, so Draco picked Scorpius up and sat him in his lap while he ate. Scorpius started rooting around like he was looking for something to latch onto, so Draco temporally removed one side of the breast pump to let him have a drink.

            “I gave Hyperion a bottle already, but Scorpius wasn’t hungry yet and refused it,” Narcissa said.

            “Alright. Thank you, mother,” Draco replied.

            As breakfast proceeded, Draco noticed that there was obvious tension between his mother and grandmother, but when he asked his mother if she’d be alright without him, she assured him that Grandmother Druella promised to be on her best behavior and that he wouldn’t come home to a Black family war; they wouldn’t even wake the Savior upstairs.

            Scorpius finished suckling and Draco put him back into his highchair. When Draco finished eating, he kissed his boys goodbye, told them to be good for their grandmother, and then he and Lucius flooed first to their meeting with their lawyer.

            They had a lot of things to cover, such as the paperwork for Draco’s marriage and the births of his two children. Most of the paperwork that had already been prepared was good to go, but there were a few minor changes, like changing the name of his first born to Severus Hyperion instead of Hyperion Draco.

            Next on the list of matters to discuss was the muggle hospital which had treated Scorpius. Lucius handed over the muggle bill and the lawyer did the calculation to figure out how many hundreds of galleons it worked out to. They discussed transferring the money over from their Gringotts account, which the lawyer had to fill out a form for, and Lucius had to sign.

            Then Lucius had business matters that needed to be dealt with; two years’ worth of issues relating to the various Malfoy businesses and investments that needed attention. And then there was the little issue of Lucius’ release from Azkaban, which the Order claimed to be an escape, but Lucius quiet clearly remembered being released free and clear. Lucius had to hand over his memories concerning that matter and several other crimes he was being accused of. The lawyer would copy the memories and present only the non-incriminating ones and his case for Lucius’ complete innocence to the heads of the MLE and Auror departments.

            Clearing Lucius of all wrong doing would require a successful campaign in the media, which was on their list of things to do for the day, but first they stopped by the Ministry, which was eerily empty, even for a Sunday. There were normally at least a few employees to receive paperwork. “My son-in-law defeats the Dark Lord and suddenly everyone takes the day off?” Lucius asked a bit too loudly. But then the huge cavernousness atrium was all but empty, so his voice carried.

            “Did you come to turn yourself in, Lord Malfoy?” the Auror working security at the Ministry asked.

            “Why no, why would I turn myself in? I was at home while my husband was slaying the Dark Lord; surely you don’t think I did it?” Draco asked.

            “That’s right, innit? Your title got stripped and the pipsqueak is the new Lord Malfoy, eh?” the Auror asked.

            “That’s Lord Malfoy and Husband of the Chosen One, to you,” Draco said.

            “What _are_ you talking about?”

            “I’m here to file the paperwork; I married Harry Malfoy last year, before I went into hiding. Now if you could direct us to whoever is on duty and available to file my paperwork.”

            “No one’s on duty; we just survived a bloody war, didn’t we? Everyone’s taking a day off while the new regime figures out who’s in charge.”

            “Well my husband just got back from saving all our arses, so I think the least you can do is call in a clerk, to process these documents for him.”

            “What are you playing at? Harry Potter would never marry you.”

            “Oh, but he would and he has. If I have to get him out of bed after he’s been up killing the Dark Lord for two straight days and nine months on the run, well I think whoever is in charge might be a bit upset about that.”

            “Let me see those then.”

            Draco handed over a copy of the marriage certificate and said, “Careful, that’s the Savior of the Wizarding World’s marriage certificate. I’d hate to see what happens to your job if you damage it.”

            “This is a fake! A forgery, it has to be.”

            “Draco, I’ll have to add slander of your good name to my list of complaints regarding the Ministry; Harry’s too,” Lucius said, speaking up for the first time and pulling out a copy of the morning’s addition of the Daily Prophet. The special evening addition issue from last night had proclaimed victory by Harry Malfoy, thanks to Lucius’ owl informing the paper of the name change with attached copy of the marriage certificate for proof. But the story had already been written before he owled and all the editors had done was change the name and add in a sentence that Harry had married Draco and taken his name. The morning addition, on the other hand, contained all of the limited information Lucius had included in his owl. And whereas the picture last night was one of Harry in the middle of a battle, the one this morning was Harry and Draco’s wedding photo, taken last year, which Lucius was nice enough to send along with his owl.

            “Right, well I’ll just call in someone to receive these papers and see about verifying them. I suspect you’ll need Harry Potter’s conformation that these are authentic before they can be filed into public record.” The Auror couldn’t believe that Harry Potter would marry a Death Eater, so he figured the paper was a hoax designed as an intricate ploy by the Malfoys for some nefarious plot they were hatching, which seemed to involve trapping Harry Potter into a fake marriage.

            “Harry Malfoy; he took my last name,” Draco said, pulling out one of his forms. “See, this form right here says so and it’s signed Harry Potter, henceforth Harry Malfoy dated last year on our wedding day.”

            “Well please wait while I contact someone who can help you with this matter, Lord Malfoy. As for your father, I’m afraid I’ll have to take him in.”

            “If you take in the father-in-law of the Savior, how do you think that’s gonna look in the papers? I’ve an interview with the Prophet right now, where I plan on telling them about all the things my father was doing behind the scenes to help Harry Malfoy win. For example, did you know Harry was captured by snatchers and taken to Bellatrix Lestrange? If it weren’t for the fact that my father gave the Dark Lord use of our Manor and that that was where Bella was, Harry would’ve been up a creek without a wand. As it was, our house elves let him go.”

            “Alright, well I don’t even know who’s in charge now anyway, so I’ll let Mr. Malfoy go as long as he agrees to come in for questioning when we’re ready for him.”

            “My lawyer is already putting together a summary of events for just such a date,” Lucius said.

            The Auror nodded and told Draco and Lucius to take a seat, while he firecalled in for assistance. It was another fifteen minutes, but finally Kingsley Shacklebolt himself came through the floo, followed by an administrator. Kingsley, who had heard from Ron and Hermione that Harry had married Draco Malfoy and had two kids in secret, wasted no time in greeting Draco and congratulating him on his wedding and the births of his sons. There was some polite chatter while the administrator went through the paperwork, checking to make sure everything was in order.

            Kingsley assured Draco that everyone was eternally grateful to Harry Malfoy for everything Harry had done. Draco took the opportunity to say that the Ministry could start showing it by clearing his father of all charges, paying Harry for the nine months he spent working twenty-four hours a day defeating the Dark Lord, and giving Draco and Professor Snape Order of Merlins for their efforts, including arranging for Harry to be smuggled Draco’s own wand and the Sword of Gryffindor, which were needed to defeat the Dark Lord.

            Kingsley said he’d see what he could do about those requests and the administrator said that everything appeared to be in order and that he would get right on filing everything. After that Draco and Lucius grabbed something to eat before heading to their next stop: the Daily Prophet.

            Draco gave an interview that painted himself, his father, and his mother in a glowing light. He played up the positives, played down the negatives, and emphasized their role in the war. He even emphasized Harry’s role in the war, which was very hard to do, because Harry had almost been the entire war effort in and of himself. In Draco’s account, the entire war came down to Harry, Severus Snape, the Malfoy family, a band of Malfoy house elves, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom, in that order, with Hermione and Neville playing minor roles. Ron didn’t even merit a mention, which was something that even the muggles who had saved Scorpius’ life had gotten.

            Finally Draco handed over a family photo of himself with the boys and promised to get them an updated photo with Harry in it, just as soon as he got around to it, contingent on the Prophet painting the Malfoy family in the right light.

            Then they stopped by the Quibbler and Witch Weekly to talk about arranging interviews. And finally they made a stop by a wizarding pet store, before going home in time for a late lunch. Lucius was still full from earlier, but Draco had to eat a lot these days to keep up with all the calories he burned breast feeding.

            Harry woke up an hour or so before Draco came home and was surprised to find Andy and her mother Druella having a pleasant conversation on the patio with Narcissa and all three boys. They had a cradle outside for Teddy, a play-mat for Scorpius, and Sev was rolling around in a walker, wearing cute little baby shoes so that he didn’t hurt his feet on the pavement.

            Harry didn’t know how Narcissa had arranged the reconciliation between her mother and her sister, but he was grateful she had. He ate lunch out on the patio and then got to hold Scorpius for the first time. He was just thinking that Scorpius ought to have a one syllable nickname like his brother Sev and wondering if anyone would mind if he called his son Scorp, when Draco got home.

            “You’re mum said to bring Scorpius in to see you; she said he wasn’t happy with any of the bottles,” Harry said, coming into the dining room with Scorpius, where Draco was eating lunch.

            “Well then what did she feed him?” Draco asked, taking Scorpius and preparing to breast feed him, but first he had to take the pump off on one side. He had nowhere else to put it, so he left it on the table. The collection bottle was empty, which meant the house elves had already changed it out.

            “Something green, judging by the inside of his ears.” Harry tried not to be too nosy about Draco’s breast feeding thing, but he was rather shocked to see the thing come out of nowhere. It seemed to be connected to the bag Draco always had on his shoulder these days. Harry had thought it was just a nappy bag, but now he wondered if the bag was part of the breast pump. If that was the case, then that meant Draco might just be breast pumping a lot more often than he thought.

            Draco looked into Scorpius’s ear and noticed the green smear. Then he looked up Scorpius’ nose and found more evidence of the baby’s lunch. “Yes it would seem so. I do wonder if he got any of it in his mouth.”

            “Well he wasn’t crying, so he must’ve, right?”

            “If it were Hyperion, absolutely, but I’m not so sure about Scorpius. We’re normally careful to make sure he doesn’t miss a meal, because he’s so small and when we’re late with the food, he doesn’t always complain. Do me a favor and ask mother how much milk he had.”

            Harry agreed and went outside to ask Narcissa. Then he went back to the dining room and told Draco, “She said Scorp drank half the bottle last night and then woke up a second time and finished it, but he only drank half of the bottle at lunch time. He didn’t want it, so she gave him extra crackers and fed him an entire dish of green beans.”

            Draco hadn’t left the house since December, so he rarely had occasion to give Scorpius a bottle and this was the first time Scorpius had indicated a problem with taking one. “Good, then he wasn’t starved, but I’ll have to be careful not to leave him too long, in case he refuses the bottle again.” Draco ate a few bites of food, before he realized what Harry had called his son and asked, “Scorp?”

            “Yeah, I thought I’d give him a nickname, if it’s alright with you. I mean, Sev has a nickname and Scorpius needs one too.”

            “Yeah, it’s fine. I kinda like it.”

            “Great! How’d it go when you were out?” Harry was wondering if there was a lot of chaos on the streets in the aftermath of the war. He imagined the Aurors would be out in full force tracking down Death Eaters and the remaining Death Eaters just might do the type of thing Bellatrix had done to Neville’s parents. He really hoped there wouldn’t be any post-war horror stories this time around, because the war was horrible enough.

            “Good. I got Hyperion a snake,” Draco said, indicating the cardboard box he’d brought home. It was sitting on the floor by the doorway

            “Why? I know you’re a Slytherin, but I don’t think a snake is a good pet for a baby.”

            “I think Sev might be a parselmouth and I’ve been dying to know if he can talk to snakes. But now that you’re here, you can tell me what he’s saying.”

            “Why do you think that? What do you think he’s saying?”

            “He makes a lot of hissing sounds, especially when he sees pictures of snakes. He has a snake toy that he’s always hissing at.”

            “Oh.”

            “So can you go get him and try talking to him in parseltongue?”

            “No, I can’t speak it anymore.”

            “Since when?”

            “Ever since I woke up after having the part of Voldemort inside me killed; it came from him, that’s why I could speak it. I don’t think it’s something I could pass on to Sev, because it wasn’t ever something that was truly mine to pass on.”

            “There was a parselmouth in my family a couple hundred years back, so it could’ve come from me. Or maybe it came from me and was activated by you. It doesn’t really matter why our son is talking to snakes, just that he is, yeah?”

            “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

            “Of course I’m right, I’m a Malfoy; we always are. Do you want to talk about how you feel about losing your ability to talk to snakes?”

            “No, it’s not really a big deal. Why?” Harry thought Draco worded the question oddly and was wondering what Draco was trying to get at.

            “I told Mother you weren’t a girl and didn’t need to talk about feelings, but at breakfast she kept mentioning that you must have a lot of them after the war. She seems to think that as your husband I ought to bring it up.

            “Um, I do have feelings, but no, I don’t really want to talk about them. What is it with women and always talking about feelings?”

            “I don’t know; must be a female thing. I’ll pass the message to Mother, but if she asks, please tell her I tried. You know mothers; they like to nag,” Draco said.

            Harry didn’t in fact know mothers, but he didn’t want to get into that or his feelings on that either, so he just nodded.

            When Harry didn’t say anything, Draco asked, “Why don’t you go get Sev and show him the snake I bought? You’re still good with snakes, aren’t you?”

            “I guess I’m about to find out. I’ll go get Sev from your mum then.”

            Harry went outside and told Narcissa about Draco’s snake. Narcissa, Druella, and Andy all wanted to see what happened with Sev and his first snake and then Lucius came out and wanted to see too, so they asked Harry to bring Draco and the snake outside, instead of bringing Sev inside.

            Harry went back inside and since Draco was almost done eating and Scorpius was done nursing, Draco agreed to come outside with the snake. Draco gave Scorpius to Harry and waited until Harry was walking back to the patio before reattaching the breast pump and grabbing the box with the snake.

            Harry sat down with Scorpius next to Narcissa, who was holding Sev. Scorpius started reaching out for Narcissa and grunting, so Harry switched babies with her. Now Narcissa had Scorpius and Harry had Sev.

            On the patio in front of the trellises of grape vines, Draco took the snake out of the box and showed Sev for the first time. Sev shrieked a very loud hissing noise and lunged in Harry’s arms for the snake. Harry almost dropped Sev, because he wasn’t expecting the sudden movement, but thankfully he didn’t. The snake too seemed to respond to Sev, turning its head to face the blond baby and staring right at Sev, flicking its tongue in and out.

            “I think it’s safe to say that Parseltongue didn’t die yesterday,” Lucius said.

            “It still might be a bit soon for that; we don’t even know what he said,” Harry said, feeling out of the loop now that he didn’t understand snakes. He hadn’t missed the ability to talk to snakes, but now that he thought his oldest son was probably a parselmouth, he was starting to.

            “Nonsense; it doesn’t matter what he said, just which language it was in,” Narcissa said.

            “It has been generations since a Malfoy has had a parseltongue in the family; it’s an honor to have another one,” Lucius said.

            The family celebrated Sev and his snake, everyone watching eagerly for what the baby and the snake would do next. Sev, for his part, made several more hissing noises at the snake and the snake slithered around the patio harmlessly. Then it was nap time and Draco put Sev and Scorpius down in their cribs, before taking a nap himself in his bedroom.

            Andy and Narcissa watched Teddy, so Harry took the moment alone to send an owl to Hermione letting her know that he was still with Draco and how everything was going. Then he sent another owl to Molly and let her know that he would stop by tomorrow after breakfast and stay through lunch. And since he had nothing else to do, he wrote notes to Luna, Neville, Dean, and Seamus, just to see how they were doing after the war and letting his friends know that he was safe and happy with his family.

            After nap time, the extended family had dinner together, which was composed of steak, shrimp, rice, and green beans; all foods they hadn’t had access to in hiding. The dining room was filled with happy chatter about Sev’s gift and there was none of the awkward tension from that morning.

            After dinner the family gathered in the drawing room and Harry asked Andy if she would go outside for a chat with him. Andy agreed and followed him to the patio. They started off talking about Tonks and how great she was. There was a bit in there about Remus too, but mostly they both said how much they missed Tonks. And then Harry got down to the heart of why he wanted to talk to Andy, which was Teddy.

            “Listen, I don’t want to take Teddy away from you, but I am the godfather and I’d like to discuss what’s going to happen to him. Draco said he’s fine with having Teddy around or even us adopting him; he just wants to know what’s going on,” Harry said.

            “I don’t think I could let Teddy go right now; not after losing my Dora. Draco’s a great young man, better than my sister Cissy that’s for sure. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister, but it’s hard to believe Draco turned out so well given the type of things Cissy and her husband and my dear old mother taught him. Anyway, I just want to say that I hold nothing against Draco and I’d love it if the two of you were part of Teddy’s life. It’s even been Draco’s milk Cissy has been giving to me for Teddy all day. If it weren’t for Draco’s generosity, I wouldn’t know what to feed the little guy, so I really do owe him a debt of gratitude,” Andy said.

            Harry and Andy sat out on the patio discussing plans for Teddy and reminiscing over Tonks for an hour more. They eventually came up with the plan to split Teddy’s time equally between the two of them. Andy wanted Harry and Draco to play a big role in Teddy’s life, so that he would still feel like he had parents and Harry wanted Andy to still have plenty of time with her grandson.

            Then Harry told Andy of his encounter with her late husband Ted before he died. Andy had already known the basic facts surrounding her husband’s death and she was glad to have an account of Ted’s last hours running from snatchers. He would’ve stayed out there talking with Andy all evening, but Draco called to him and asked if he wanted a part in bath time. He agreed and went upstairs with Draco and the boys for another bath in which he got so wet he might as well have gotten in the water himself.

            They got the boys dressed and Draco took Scorpius into his room to breast feed while Harry was still struggling with Sev, just like the day before. Putting on the nappy took Harry many tries, because Draco didn’t help him with it this time. Still, he had seen the process done several times that day and it was time he gave it a go on his own. The first several tries Sev moved too fast and foiled Harry’s attempts and when he did finally get the nappy fastened, it wasn’t on right. It was too loose and Sev’s penis was hanging out the side. Sev rolled over and was trying to scoot away, so Harry pulled the baby back and flipped him onto his back again, saying, “Stay still; Daddy doesn’t want to stick you with one of the pins.”

            “Da da da da da da,” Sev said and smacked the glasses off of Harry’s face.

            The baby was once again on his stomach and scooching away slowly when Harry got his glasses on and went in for yet another attempt. Harry got Sev back onto his back and unfastened one side, tightened it up, pushing the penis all the way inside, and then reinserted the safety pin. There were a few more attempts, before he finally got the other side tightened. He was getting a hang of getting the clothes on a moving baby, so once the nappy was on, the pajamas went on quickly.

            When Harry finally got the last of the snaps done up, he went into Draco’s room and found Draco sitting on his bed with Scorpius. There were two stuffed toys on the foot of the bed, one in the shape of a snake and another one in the shape of a scorpion, both with a rattle on the end.

            Draco indicated the bottle of milk on the desk for Sev and Harry grabbed it, before sitting down on the bed next to Draco and Scorpius, while he fed Sev.

            “I talked to your aunt; we agreed to share Teddy fifty-fifty,” Harry said.

            “You did, huh?” Draco asked, but he didn’t sound happy about that at all.

            “Um, didn’t you want me to talk to her?”

            “Yeah, and I wanted the two of you to come to a proper decision, not some wishy-washy do-gooder peace-on-Earth dragon dung decision.”

            “I thought you said you were willing to take Teddy in as your own? Were you just saying that, because you thought it wouldn’t come to that?”

            “No, I said I’d take him in as my own, if my aunt gave him to us, not shared him with us. I’m stilling willing to do it if she’s willing to give him up, but I thought I explained to you that I wasn’t willing to share him like a couple of divorcees. I haven’t gotten divorced, so I shouldn’t be made to suffer for it. I knew you were the Savior and liable to bring home stray kneazles who tried to scratch your eyeballs out and I can totally see how I should have expected you to come back home from war with an orphan, but I’m not just gonna sit back and let my heart get broken when my aunt wants her grandson back.”

            “Oh. Okay, I’ll talk to her again. Kneazles?”

            “Well honestly I thought it would by that house elf you love that you’d bring home, but he used to be my house elf anyway and it wouldn’t be so bad to pay the wages of an elf we don’t really need. I didn’t think it’d be a stray human.”

            Harry didn’t think he’d given Draco any reason to think he was going to bring Dobby home. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

            “I had a chat with mother before I married you, when she was still considering the marriage contract. She wanted to make sure the marriage would last, which she thought would only happen if I accepted you for who you are, with all your flaws. We started talking about your relationship with Dobby.”

            “What did she say?”

            “She pointed out that you were the self-sacrificing hero type and asked if I was really willing to put up with that. And then you’re always fawning all over that elf, telling him thank you and then eating it up when he says what a good and noble wizard you are. I put the two together.”

            “So you’re saying that before we even got married, you realized that your future husband would be bringing home strays and you decided you were okay with it and married me anyway?”

            “Yeah, that’s why I included that bit in my wedding vows, to show you that I was okay with it. But don’t go getting any ideas: I’m allowing you one orphan, one elf, one kneazle or crup, and one abraxan, but after your one of each type of stray, there will be no more. Next time someone turns up on our doorstop with an orphan, I’m going to tell you no, because we already have an orphan, so you better think long and hard about it and make sure that he’s the orphan you want.”

            “What about you? Do you want him?”

            “I wouldn’t mind.”

            “Even though he’s not a pureblood and his father was a werewolf?”

            “It’s not about what his parents were, so much as what Teddy is and is not. As long as Teddy _isn’t_ a werewolf and as long as he _is_ a metamorphmagus, then I don’t see the problem.”

            “What does being a metamorphmagus have to do with anything?”

            “Don’t you remember what I told you about purebloods back when we first got together?”

            “Er, not really.”          

            “With most purebloods, lack of blood purity is forgiven with talent. That boy is clearly talented, so any purity he lacks will be forgiven now that the Dark Lord is gone.”

            “Alright, so you’d really be fine with taking him in?”

            “As long as it’s official, then yes.”

            “What would make it official? Andy’s agreement?”

            “If she signs a custody agreement, then that’s a start, but if we’re going through with this then we should be talking adoption.”

            “Oh.” The thought of adoption hadn’t even crossed Harry’s mind yet.

            “If he’s gonna be one of our boys, then he needs to be just like our boys. His parents are dead and yeah, that’s awful, but him being adopted isn’t gonna change that. He’ll still be Dora and Professor Lupin’s only kid with whatever rights come from that, but he’d be a Malfoy too and all that entails. It’d give him another set of parents in addition to the set he lost, not in replace of them.”

            “Yeah, that makes sense. But isn’t it a bit early to talk about adoption? You haven’t even held him yet; how do you even know you want to adopt him?”

            “Well if we don’t want to adopt him, then we need to be upfront with my aunt about that now. I don’t know the situation, but there might be another couple out there that would want him and take him in and love him like he was their own. I’ve seen enough to know that we could do that and that’s why I suggested it. I was under the impression that that is what you wanted. I know my aunt loves him, but she’s old. You were taken in after becoming an orphan, I saw the way you were with him, and I just assumed you wanted to do the same for him.” Scorpius was done feeding, so Draco set him down on the bed on his tummy next to his brother. Then Draco put the breast pump back on and spelled the panel in the paternity robes closed.

            “The family who took me in didn’t love me and they didn’t treat me like one of their own, like you’re talking about doing.” Harry noticed Draco doing something with the pumping machine again. He was getting rather curious about the process and was thinking about asking Draco about it.

            “How can that be possible? Half the families in the wizarding world would’ve gladly taken you in and loved you.”

            “Well I wasn’t in a wizarding family, now was I?”

            “Weren’t you with your muggle family? Are you telling me that your own family didn’t want you?”

            “Yes, they didn’t want me. Dumbledore forced them into it, because my protection against Voldemort was only good as long as I lived in a house where my mother’s blood ran, so it was the only place I was safe, alright?”

            “Safe from everything but your mother’s family it would seem.”

            Harry didn’t answer that. Instead he focused on Sev who was trying to scoot across the bed to get the toys at the end while making hissing sounds.

            “Look, your family seems really messed up, but my family’s not like that. Sure we’ve got our own problems, but with us you’re either in or you’re out. You’re all the way in and we’ll do anything for you or you’re all the way out and we’ll let Dark Lords have you. Obviously my grandmother made a bad choice choosing Bella over Andy, but that doesn’t really matter right now. What matters is whether or not you want your godson to be your son or whether you want him to be that kid you visit on weekends twice a month.”

            “Alright, tell me one thing you like about him.” Harry didn’t want to take Teddy away from Andy if Draco didn’t really want him. He didn’t want their new family to turn out like his old family and Teddy to turn into the next Harry. If that was the case, he thought Teddy would be better off with Andy.

            “I like his blue eyes and the way Scorpius and you look at him. That’s three.” Teddy could change the color of the ring of iris closest to his pupils, but the rest of his eyes remained a constant blue. He would likely be able to change his entire iris, like Tonks could, when he got older, but the fact that they were blue now indicated that blue was probably Teddy’s natural eye color.

            Scorpius was reaching for the scorpion toy, so Draco grabbed both toys and gave them to the boys to play with on the bed. Sev took his snake and rolled over onto his back, grinning up at Harry, waving the snake toy, and hissing. Scorpius stayed on his belly and cried, so Draco helped him turn over and then Scorpius sat up to play with his toy.

            “Wow, I didn’t think you could really have anything…I mean I just met him and you seem to avoid him.”

            “Because I don’t want to get my heart broken and I don’t know where I stand with him.”

            “Point taken, I’ll talk to Andy. This might take a while to discuss if we’re talking adoption though.”

            “Well just don’t expect me to get close to him until you’ve decided.”

            “Okay, let’s talk about something else.”

            “Like what?”

            “Like those toys: how’d you get them a scorpion and a snake, when you’ve been in hiding all this time?”

            “We ordered a bunch of toys before we went into hiding. I knew I was going to name one of the boys Scorpius, so Mother ordered a scorpion toy specifically for him. As for the snake, it was one of many stuff animals Mother bought and Sev took a liking to it right away.”

            “That’s good. I’m glad they have toys. So what are your plans for tomorrow?”

            “I’m going to owl the Quibbler and Witch Weekly about setting up interviews. Do you want to go with me for any of the interviews, or stay home?”

            “I’d rather stay home. You’re not gonna do the interviews tomorrow, are you?”

            “No, probably not. I might do the Quibbler tomorrow if they want me that early, but only because you said you wanted me to give one to them to match the Prophet and I already gave my interview to the Prophet.”

            “Oh, good.”

            “Why, what are your plans for tomorrow?”

            “I’m going to the Weasley’s, remember?”

            “Yeah, sure. Just let me know what time you’re going and when you’ll be back.”

            “I told Molly and Hermione I’d get there around ten, stay for lunch, and I’ll be back before dinner.”

            “Sounds good.”

            “But can you give me the secret so I can come back on my own?”

            “I thought Father told you: Professor Snape was our secret keeper and now he’s dead, so I can’t get it for you.”

            “But you knew the secret, so now you’re the secret keeper.”

            “Come again?”

            “We went through this with headquarters after Dumbledore died: when the secret keeper dies, then everyone who knew the secret is now the keeper, so you can tell me.”

            “Oh, I didn’t think it’d be that simple. I thought we were gonna have to find some way to break it or something.”

            “So can you give it to me then?”

            “Yeah, just let me find a scrap of parchment,” Draco said getting up.

            When Draco stood up, Scorpius reached out for him with one hand and started clenching and unclenching his fist saying, “Fa fa fa fa.”

            “I’m not leaving you with him, Scorpius, you can relax,” Draco told the baby, going over to the desk and writing the secret down for Harry. He really didn’t think it would be nearly this easy, even after Harry told him; he was a bit shocked that it worked. Now they could give the secret to his aunt and grandmother too. Grandmother Druella had been here at the villa for a year now, but Professor Snape hadn’t given her the secret, for fear she might turn on them.

            “How do you know that’s what Scorp wants?”

            “He calls me Fa and reaches out to me like that when he wants to be picked up,” Draco said crawling back onto the bed and handing Harry the paper.

            “Thanks,” Harry said, taking the secret. He read it and then ripped it up. “I think it’s best to keep the house under protection for now; at least until the stray Death Eaters are rounded up and caught.”

            “Yeah, sure.”

            “Elf!” Sev exclaimed all of a sudden and when Harry looked, there was an elf who appeared to be caught in the act of cleaning up Draco’s desk. The scraps of paper he’d just had were gone and that was probably the elf too.

            “Carry on Jingly,” Draco told the elf, even though both boys were now holding out their hands to the elf like Scorpius had done minutes earlier for Draco.

            “Eeeeeeeee,” Scorpius squealed.

            “Yes, elf,” Draco agreed.

            “Elf,” Sev repeated.

            “Does Sev always do everything before Scorp?”

            “No, not everything, but you have to understand that Scorp was born underdeveloped and it was months before he was as big as Sev was when he was born.”

            “Okay. What’s something Scorp’s done first?”

            “Called me Fa and screamed at you are two things that come to mind. Sev calls me by crying; he’s trying to make me jealous of an elf, the subversive little thing.”

            “Sev, do you cry at your father when you want him?” Harry asked and the baby grinned back at him.

            “See, that’s practically an admission of guilt,” Draco said.

            “Oh I’m sure.”

            “Fa fa fa,” Scorpius said, throwing the scorpion toy at Draco and reaching out for him with both hands.

            “Yes my little man?” Draco asked, picking up the baby.

            Scorpius lay his little head down on Draco’s shoulder and said, “Fa.”

            “And he does that too, which means he wants to be put to bed. Sev will just stay up playing until he starts crying of exhaustion, but sometimes Scorp will actually ask to be put down,” Draco said.

            “Wow, that’s really advanced. I’m sure he’s brilliant, just like his brother.”

            “Oh, and sometimes when he wants a nappy change, he’ll start babbling the N-sound, when Sev is perfectly happy to sit in his piss all day long. Come along, bed time,” Draco said, standing up with Scorpius and walking to the door.

            Harry followed after Draco with Sev and they put the babies to sleep in the nursery, performing one last set of nappy changes. Draco cast a monitoring charm, before they went back to Draco’s bedroom.

            Draco led them into the bath, like he did yesterday, except this time he was still wearing the pump and took it off in front of Harry. Harry watched, but didn’t say anything. Like the day before, Harry was horny and didn’t want to ruin his chance of sex tonight with Draco by talking about a sensitive subject.

            Harry washed quickly and then started massaging Draco’s back, while Draco was washing. He rubbed his hands over Draco’s back, shoulders, neck, and then his stomach, avoiding Draco’s tender chest area. Then he made a move for Draco’s bits.

            “Did you look up contraceptives today?” Draco asked, before turning around and pressing his lips to Harry’s.

            Harry deepened the kiss, but when they broke apart for air, he had to admit that he had not. “Um, I sort of slept all morning and barely woke up before you got home, so I didn’t get a chance.”

            “Do you want to try to get pregnant right away then?”

            “Er, no, not so soon. I’ll look up a spell tomorrow, I promise.” Harry knew he would see Hermione tomorrow and although he didn’t want to talk to her about his sex life, he might just be willing to do so to ask for help with a contraceptive.

            “So did you want to stick to wanking for tonight then?” Draco thought he would have time to look it up himself tomorrow if he really wanted to, but he didn’t care that much. If it were important, he would’ve made Harry a birth control potion when he made his own long-term birth control potion. The only pregnancy that he thought really needed to be avoided was another one for himself, because he had no plans of ever being pregnant again.

            “Yeah,” Harry answered, before pressing his lips back to Draco’s lips. They kissed for several minutes before Harry ventured his hand forth to Draco’s bits again, which were still soft. “What’s wrong?” Harry’s prick was so achingly hard he didn’t understand why Draco wasn’t ready yet.

            “I can’t stop thinking that the boys are just in the next room and my parents and my grandmother and my aunt- Merlin my whole family- is in this house and might hear.”

            “We can cast a silencing charm.”

            “There’s already a silencing charm up on this bathroom.”

            “Then why are you still worried?”

            “I don’t know, except that the charm might break or my parents might come in or something.”

            “Do you want to spend the night away from them, somewhere where we’re alone?”

            “Yeah, that should work, but not tonight.”

            “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure your parents would understand; we are married.”

            “Yeah, but Mother was up all last night and I assured her that she could sleep tonight and I wouldn’t bother her. And Father normally helps out too, but he was telling me he wants to personally check in with all our businesses and properties tomorrow; well as many as he can at least and I think our lawyer wants to see him again. And we didn’t get a chance to stop by St. Mungo’s and make an appointment with a healer to see Scorpius, so he might do that tomorrow. Oh and we both need to get our apparition licenses and Father said he would make appointments for us as soon as the Ministry is back open.”

            “It’s closed? I thought you and your father went there today?”

            “We went there today and there was only one Auror on guard duty who threatened to arrest Father for being a Death Eater and I explained that we were married and I was there to file paperwork and he called this wizard named Kingsley Shacklebolt, who seemed to be in charge. When Kingsley arrived, he had an administrator with him who took our paperwork and promised to file it.”

            “Oh, poor guy. I can just imagine how stupid that Auror felt thinking that your father was a Death Eater and then finding out that we’re married.”

            “He didn’t want to believe me, despite the proof I had in my hands, but Kingsley said he knew Hermione and therefore knew that I was telling the truth.”

            “Yeah, they’ve met and he’d know to trust her when it came to something about me.”

            “Yeah, so Father has things to do tomorrow and won’t be available to babysit. Give them until things calm down and then we can go away together for the night. Once Aunt Andy goes back to her house, we drop grandmother off at her place, and things settle down with Father, I’m sure they will be more than happy to babysit.”

            “What about your grandmum? Can she babysit?” Harry couldn’t believe he was asking that, but Druella hadn’t seemed at all the mean old racist witch today and Harry was _really_ horny.

            “No, she doesn’t do nighttime. She’s good for afternoon naps mostly; in the morning she’s normally a bit loony, so don’t leave her with the boys in the morning either.”

            “Is it the blood traitors in the morning?”

            “No, last time it was the elves. If we were proper masters we would’ve cut one of their heads off to teach them their place. Often it’s the doxies not infesting the place properly and we ought to transplant some of the Black family doxies from her place, because they know how to do it right.”

            “I had assumed Bellatrix was a one-off; you should’ve warned me that crazy runs in your family.”

            “You had already met my father, so I think you were adequately warned.”

            “Yes, you’re right.”

            Draco pressed his lips back to Harry’s and they kissed again. “Do you still love me?”

            “Always.”

            There was more snogging, but they didn’t take it any further than that and got out of the tub when the water turned cold. Harry went to the closet and got an applicator full of the conditioning potion, which he inserted before joining Draco at his dresser. This time when they were getting dressed for bed, Harry noticed Draco putting the machine back on and decided it was time to ask. “Is that how you pump milk for Sev?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Do you do it a lot?”

            “Yeah; I need to if I’m gonna make enough milk for Teddy too. I have some milk in storage, but with three babies it’ll run out eventually, so I might as well start now.”

            “So how long do you need to do it before you go to sleep?”

            “I’m gonna do it while I’m asleep,” Draco answered, putting on a new set of paternity robes.

            “You can sleep like that?”

            “Yeah, once you get used to it. Honestly it’s easier to leave the thing on and going; a lot of times I just forget about it.”

            “It still works when you’re lying down? I mean, the milk doesn’t like leak or anything?”

            “No, it’s charmed. A gravity charm keeps the milk going into the collection bottles and a leak-proof charm covers the rest.”

            “And it doesn’t hurt you when you move in your sleep? What happens if you roll over?”

            “The paternity robes have the wizard-space charm on them, so there’s plenty of room for the pumps and when I turn over, pressure is never placed on that area. Anything else you want to know oh curious one or can we go to sleep now?”

            “Sleep sounds good, but you’ll let me know if I’m hurting you, right? I mean if I accidentally bump into you or something.”

            “It won’t be a problem.” With two babies, Draco got accidentally hit and kicked enough to know that no amount of bumping would hurt.

            And then Draco crawled into bed and Harry followed him. Harry didn’t want to hold Draco at first, because he was still worried he might hurt Draco, but then Draco grabbed Harry’s arms and wrapped them around Draco’s waist, snuggling in.

            Draco woke up when the monitoring charm went off. Sev and Scorpius were up and fussing, so Draco picked them both up and took them over to the rocking chair, where he nursed Scorpius and fed Sev a bottle.

            Harry woke up when Draco got out of bed. He was confused for a minute, but then he remembered that the boys would need feeding, so he went to the nursery. He thought Draco would need help, but when he looked in, he saw that Draco had it under control and was feeding both boys himself. He watched for a minute, but he was horny. He went back to Draco’s bathroom and decided to have a wank.

            When Harry was done, he cleaned up, and crawled back into bed to wait for Draco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of having a little parselmouth in the family? Teddy of course is a metamorphmagus, I gave Scorpius the hyper sensitivity to magic thing, and I wanted to give Severus something too.
> 
> Up next Harry will visit the Weasleys.


	17. Chapter17

            Harry slept in again the next morning, if only for an hour. By the time he got up everyone else had already had breakfast. Draco and the twins were the only ones still in the dining room; Draco had the boys in their highchairs and was feeding them each a bowl of mashed green beans. Harry sat down and started on a piece of toast as he watched Draco alternate from feeding Scorpius a bite to prying the spoon away from Sev and giving Sev a bite, before letting Sev have the empty spoon to gnaw on once again.

            “You’re still going out today, correct?” Draco asked, feeding a bite to Scorpius again.

            “Yeah,” Harry answered.

            “You know how to buy things with muggle money, yeah?”

            “Yeah, why?”

            “I’m running low on my muggle pills. Professor Snape used to get them for me, but now…”

            “Yeah, I’ll get them. What kind of pills? Like medicine?”

            “The muggle-healer called them vitamins, calcium, and iron.”

            “Yeah, I know what those are; I can get you more, no problem. But when did you see a muggle-healer?”

            “Before they let me take Scorpius home. They wanted proof that he really was mine and that my parents hadn’t stolen him, so they made me come in.”

            “Merlin, do I need to get the Aurors out here to obliviate them?”

            “No, I don’t think so,” Draco said, before telling Harry the story of his muggle-hospital visit and how he’d been about to obliviate Dr. Leroy, before everything had worked itself out. He had to admit to using a confundus charm on a muggle, but it was necessary, so Harry wasn’t upset. Then Draco explained that the vitamins were supposed to be good for breast feeding, they made him feel better, and Professor Snape had confirmed that they weren’t poisonous.

            “Wow, I can’t believe Draco Malfoy is taking muggle products regularly,” Harry said when Draco finished his explanation.

            “Don’t go spreading it around. Anyway, I have the packaging it came in,” Draco said before pulling out a plastic bag with a muggle drugstore logo on it.

            Harry had been to this store before, so the errand shouldn’t be a problem. He finished eating, dressed for the day, and came back downstairs to find Draco wiping green mush off of two little faces in the dining room. Harry kissed all three of his men goodbye and Draco handed Harry a packet of pictures to show Molly. Then Harry flooed over to the Burrow where Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Hermione were all waiting in the sitting room.

            Harry hugged each of the Weasleys. They spoke first of their grief for Fred, Tonks, and Lupin, both their own and those of the people they care about, including Andy. Then Molly asked if Harry had eaten. He had, but agreed to some tea, so Molly headed into the kitchen to prepare it. Arthur followed her.

            “How’s it been staying with the Malfoys? Is Lucius treating you alright?” Hermione asked.

            Harry proceeded to tell his friends about life with the Malfoys, including the fact that Lucius had been unusually nice to him, calling him son.

            “You’re really chumming it up with your father-in-law then?” Ron asked.

            “Yeah. Well we haven’t spent all that much time together, but he’s been fine.”

            “Did you know Draco gave an interview to the Daily Prophet?” Ron asked.

            “Yeah, yesterday. He said he’d handle the reporters for me.”

            “He did, did he? Did you read it?”

            “No.”

            “Well, have a look,” Ron said, passing the paper over to Harry.

            The title was, “The Chosen One has Chosen,” and the cover was a recent photo of Draco with a baby in each arm.

            “That’s a great picture,” Harry said, only having eyes for his husband and sons.

            “You might want to read it.”

            “Why? I trust Draco; I gave him the jist of the war and I’m sure he relayed it fine.”

            “What do you call claiming that Lucius gave that diary to Ginny in order to turn it over to the proper authorities for destruction? What about when he says that his family, including old Lucius, was never loyal to Voldemort? What about how he calls him the Dark Lord throughout the whole bloody thing? Merlin, he paints turning over their house to Voldemort as an act of planned sabotage!” Ron exclaimed.

            “It really says all that?” Harry asked Hermione for confirmation.

            “Well, yes Harry, it does. He paints Lucius as a misunderstood spy,” Hermione answered.

            “I guess I ought to read it then,” Harry said and then actually read the article. When he finished, he had to conclude that it had a very Prophet-esque feel to it, only telling half of the story. While Harry was reading, Molly and Arthur came back into the room with a tea service and a platter of biscuits, which they set down and waited quietly for Harry to finish reading. “I’ll talk to Draco.”

            “Good, see that you do,” Ron said.

            “Harry, dear, perhaps you can tell us about those boys of yours? What are their names again?” Molly asked, changing the subject.

            “Scorpius and Severus Malfoy,” Harry answered.

            Ron gave a quick snort at the first name, but his jaw dropped at the second. “He named your kid after Snape?” Ron asked with evident horror.

            “No, Draco named him Hyperion, but I suggested changing his name and Draco agreed.”

            “Blimey Harry,” Ron said.

            “Well I think it’s wonderful. Congratulations Harry,” Hermione said, giving Harry a hug, just to show Ron the proper way to be happy for a friend.

            “Thanks Hermione.”

            “Maybe you could bring the boys over sometime? I understand how you feel about Ron being near them, but Ron can go out and then you, Draco, and your boys could come over,” Molly suggested.

            “I’ll ask Draco. Oh that reminds me!” Harry exclaimed, pulling out the packet of pictures Draco had given him. “Draco sent pictures. I haven’t seen them yet.”

            “Well open them, dear!” Molly exclaimed and Hermione and Arthur chimed in their agreement.

            Harry opened the package and the first picture in the pile was of an absolutely tiny baby with black hair and a large tube disappearing inside his mouth. The tube was taped to his face, obscuring his features. Hermione gasped in surprise when she saw the photo and Arthur and Molly each took in deep breaths.

            “Oh, this must be Scorpius in the muggle hospital after he was born. Draco told me that it was Professor Snape’s idea to take him to muggles for help and that Lucius and Narcissa were the ones who took him; they guarded him the entire time he was there.”

            “Oh my,” Molly said. “That was certainly good thinking on Severus’ part. How long was your son in the hospital?”

            “A week. Draco wrote me when he finally brought him home. I was so scared the Death Eaters might catch onto them, but no one ever thought to look in French muggle hospitals.”

            “Yes, being on the continent certainly helped and it was absolutely ingenious to hide amongst the muggles. I’d love to know how that tube thing works,” Arthur said.

            “What’s the next picture of Harry?” Hermione asked.

            Harry shuffled the pictures, revealing the next photo in the line. It was of a tiny baby in an incubator and all of the machines that were hooked up to him. “Must be Scorpius again, but I can’t see the face,” Harry said.

            Molly murmured, “What a poor dear.”

            Arthur made some comments on how fascinating the machines looked and Harry turned to the next photo.

            The next three photos were of Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco, each holding Scorpius in the hospital. Then there was one of a group of muggle nurses and doctors, one of whom was holding baby Scorpius, who finally had the tubes removed.

            “That was probably taken just before he was released from the hospital,” Hermione chimed in. “They like to take pictures showing everyone who helped to save someone with the patient they saved.”

            Arthur again thought that was fascinating.

            Harry turned to the next picture, which was of Professor Snape holding a very tiny Severus. He wasn’t nearly as tiny as Scorpius, but he was still small and his face was so wrinkled that Harry wouldn’t have recognized him, if not for the blond hair.

            “Draco said that Professor Snape was taking care of Sev, while he recovered,” Harry told them.

            There were some murmurs of disbelief, especially at the smile that seemed so out of place on Professor Snape’s face and the adoring way the pictured Snape looked at the baby in his arms, before looking back up and smiling again.

            “It’s a very nice photo, dear. He clearly loves your son very much,” Molly said.

            “I think we all misjudged the man,” Arthur said.

            “He wasn’t open and caring on the outside, but deep down he was a good person and he really cared. We all owe him a debt of gratitude,” Hermione said.

            “Yeah, we do,” Harry agreed.

            “Well the next one, dear? What’s the next one of?” Molly prompted.

            The next photo showed Scorpius lying in his crib, pulling his right leg to his face and sucking on his little toes. The left leg stayed still the entire time and it was rather obvious from the photo that there was something wrong with it. It looked abnormally thin and the foot was turned in and it didn’t move. Every other part of the baby moved, except for that leg.

            “This is Scorpius again.”

            “What’s wrong with his leg, dear?” Molly asked.

            “It’s a birth defect. It’s small and crooked and he can barely move it.”

            Hermione, Molly, and Arthur all expressed similar sentiments about how awful that was.

            “Okay, I get it: I shouldn’t’ve punched the ferret and it’s my fault Harry’s kid is crippled, but did he really have to send only photos that would point that out?” Ron complained, standing up.

            “What did you want him to do? Hide Scorpius away in the closet and only take pictures of Sev?” Harry asked incredulously, standing up to face Ron.

            “He could’ve put a blanket over that leg before taking the pictures!”

            “We’re not going to be ashamed of our son, just because he only has one functional leg, Ron! Don’t take what you did out on Draco; he didn’t ask for it. If it wasn’t for Professor Snape, Lucius, and Narcissa, you’d be a murderer right now, Ron.”

            “Fine, I’ll just go,” Ron said, slamming the front door on his way out.

            “Give him a chance to cool off and see if he realizes on his own that that was uncalled for,” Arthur said.

            “He’s just mad that Draco didn’t mention his name in the article,” Hermione said.

            “Didn’t he? I hadn’t noticed,” Harry said, making a mental note to reread the article.        “Are there any more pictures, dear?” Molly asked, changing the subject.

            There were more pictures, so Harry revealed the next one, which must’ve been taken recently, judging by the size of the boys. They were both in contraptions that held the boys upright and displayed toys in front of them. Sev was bouncing his contraption up and down quite rapidly and Scorpius was barely moving his with his one leg.

            “Harry, I think Draco might be trying to send you a message with these pictures,” Hermione said.

            “That he doesn’t like Ron? Yeah, I kinda figured that one out,” Harry replied.

            “I don’t blame him, dear; I’m not too fond of my son right now myself,” Molly said. “I wish Ron was still small enough that I could drag him over my knee and spank him.”

            “If you did, could you take a picture of it for me? I think Draco might open up to you more if he saw that,” Harry replied.

            “He’s a good lad; you’re really lucky to have him, Harry. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if Draco hadn’t the presence of mind to go into hiding,” Molly said.

            “And it was good thinking on Severus’ part to get the little one to the muggles,” Arthur added.

            Harry thanked Mrs. Weasley and then remembered Draco’s request, so he asked Hermione what gifts would be appropriate for the doctors who saved Scorpius’ life. Hermione suggested flowers and coffee mugs, but Harry had the feeling Draco wanted a more substantial gift. Hermione was stumped, but promised to look into it for him. After that the elder Weasley went into the kitchen to check on lunch, leaving Harry and Hermione alone.

            “Listen Hermione, I need your help with something, but this has to stay between us, alright?” Harry asked.

            “Yes, of course,” Hermione replied. “What is it?”

            “I need your help finding birth control. Either a potion or a spell, but some form of contraceptive, and not the yearlong stuff they give out at the school.”

            “Why? Is Draco allergic to one of the ingredients?”

            “No and it’s for me: he wants me to get pregnant within the next year, so he wants me to find something that’ll work short term.”

            “You don’t sound too thrilled about that.”

            “I’m not. I was considering finding something short term to show Draco, but really taking something long term. It’d be pretty brilliant if I couldn’t get pregnant and Draco had to do it again.”

            “Harry! That hardly sounds fair to Draco!”

            “Yeah; please don’t tell him I said that.”

            “Alright, but only if you agree to talk to him about this. Why does he want you to carry the next baby? Did he have some problem carrying the twins? What if something went wrong and he can’t get pregnant again? You might be shooting yourself in the foot by taking a potion like that and then neither of you would be able to get pregnant.”

            “He didn’t tell me anything went wrong on his end. And we agreed it would be me next ages ago.”

            “Harry! You agreed and you want to back out without telling him? Why would you do that?”

            “I had to, in order to convince him to marry me. It’s in our bloody marriage contract and I thought he only wanted that in there to appease his mum, because Narcissa expected Draco to be manlier or something.”

            “Harry, I won’t help you with this until after you talk to Draco. Tell him how you feel.”

            “Hermione, we’re guys, we don’t talk about our feelings.”

            “Have you tried?”

            “Yeah, as a matter of fact, we gave it a go last night.” Then Harry went into a recount of the emotionally stunted talk about feelings Draco had initiated.

            “Boys; you’re hopeless. You need to at least try to talk to him about this. Maybe you can do something for him in exchange, like agree to change all of the dirty nappies. If he loves you, he’ll understand.”

            “Alright, fine, I’ll talk to him. But could you at least help me with a short term contraceptive?”

            “Well…um, I sort of know a…um, a spell,” Hermione admitted blushing.

            “Brilliant.”

            And so Hermione taught Harry a one-time contraceptive charm that had to be cast each and every time the user had sex in order to be effective. The charm wasn’t too complicated, so by the time Bill and Fleur came through the door, Harry thought he might just be proficient at it enough to get it right.

            Bill called out to his brothers and Charlie and Percy came downstairs with a red-eyed George in between them. Then Ginny flooed in from wherever she’d been, completing the set, except for Ron. The group of young adults spent some time catching up before lunch. After lunch, Charlie suggested a game of quidditch to cheer George up, so Harry, Ginny, and the remaining four Weasley boys went outside for a game, leaving Hermione and Fleur to talk to Molly and Arthur. The match did end up cheering George up a bit and everyone went back inside in slightly higher spirits. Then Harry remembered that he had an errand to run before he could go home and he didn’t want to be late for dinner.

            “Listen guys, I’ve got to get going, but I wanted to thank you for letting me come over and to tell you again how truly sorry I am about Fred,” Harry said.

            “Where are you taking off too already? Can’t you stay a bit longer?” Ginny asked.

            “No, I’ve an errand to run for Draco and I’ve got to stop by Gringotts first.”

            “You just got home and already the ball and chain has you running errands?” George teased.

            Harry explained the nature of his errand to general amazement by the Weasleys.

            “A Malfoy taking muggle pills? I never would’ve believed it,” Bill said.

            “I ‘oold. Draco ‘oold do anything for hiz babeez,” Fleur said.

            Harry really did need to get going, so he started saying goodbye again. But then George said, “We can’t have the Savior of the Wizarding World out alone in Diagon Alley: you’ll get mobbed! I’ll go with you.”

            Hermione too insisted on going, so the three of them flooed to the joke shop in Diagon Alley. Harry did get noticed and his invisibility cloak turned out to be necessary for him to get through Diagon Alley. He only took his cloak off when he was making the withdrawal from Gringotts. Afterwards it was decided that the muggle world should be much safer for Harry, so George went home and Harry and Hermione continued on by side-along to the drugstore.

            For the first time in what felt like ages, Harry found himself in a muggle store. He and Hermione picked out the proper supplements and paid. Hermione apparated them back to the Weasleys and Harry flooed from there back to the villa.

            When Harry got home, he found most of the family gathered in the drawing room. Andy was absent, as was Lucius, but everyone else was there. Teddy was in a basinet and the twins were in the bouncing contraptions that Harry had seen in the picture. Sev was bouncing away merrily and Harry did a double-take when he saw that so was Scorpius. He examined Scorpius a bit more closely and realized that the baby was indeed only using his right leg, but the toy was still bouncing away.

            “Draco, here are your vitamins,” Harry said, handing the shopping bag over.

            “Thanks Harry,” Draco replied, giving Harry a chaste kiss.

            “Where are your aunt and your dad?”

            “Aunt Andy is taking a nap. My father is still away on his errands.”

            “Okay.” Harry settled down onto the sofa with Draco, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Scorpius bouncing away and he began to wonder if all of those pictures Draco had sent him emphasizing Scorpius’ deformity were exaggerations picked to make Ron look bad. “Um, Draco, does Scorpius always bounce away like that?”

            “No, not at first, but then Mother cast an antigravity charm on that one, so that it’d move easier. Just make sure you don’t put Sev in his, or he’ll bounce right up to the moon. Everything is color coded: Scorpius is green and Sev is blue,” Draco answered.

            “Oh, okay, that makes sense.” Now Harry was starting to feel bad about thinking badly of Draco. “So what did you do all day?”

            “I owled St. Mungos and set up an appointment for Scorpius and set interview appointments with Witch Weekly and the Quibbler as well. The Prophet owled me a couple of times asking for more details on Professor Snape and for pictures of him, so I sent back a rather lengthy reply and a few photos I had.”

            “Great. When’s Scorpius’ appointment?”

            “Not for another two weeks. Apparently they’re dealing with a high case load from the last battle.”

            “Two weeks will come soon enough. What about the interviews?”

            “Later this week. Witch Weekly tomorrow and the Quibbler the day after.”

            “Um, can I talk to you about the interview you gave yesterday?”

            Draco agreed, so they went out onto the patio to have some privacy.

            “I didn’t like the way you portrayed your dad. He wasn’t completely innocent and he had malicious intentions when he gave Ginny Voldemort’s diary. Ginny almost died!”

            “I’m sorry about that. She’s alright now, right?”

            “Yeah, she’s fine, but I don’t want people thinking your father was some secret spy all along when it was only in the last year he switched sides.”

            “Alright, I’ll try to paint a more realistic vision of him in the next interview. But Harry, he’s my father and legally he could still be prosecuted for many of his actions when he was loyal to the Dark Lord. I need to paint him in a positive light, or he could end up back in Azkaban. Without my father running our business matters, I won’t be able to stay home with our boys, not to mention what having a father in Azkaban will do for my future political career! And Father did a lot to help your side this past year. If it were me, I wouldn’t have left Aunt Bella in the Manor thinking she owned the place! I would’ve kicked her and the Dark Lord out, but Father left them there as a trap. You have to admit it came in handy when you escaped from the Manor.”

            “Yeah, he has helped and I’ll testify in his favor if it ever comes to that. I don’t want him to get locked up, for your sake, but I also don’t want to hear you praising him for what he did to Ginny.”

            “Duly noted. I know he’s not perfect, but Father has always done what he felt was best for our family. It took him until I wrote that letter, but once I did, he jumped ships immediately and has been trying to help you whole heartedly ever since.”

            “Yeah, I’m actually starting to think that he’s a decent guy; he must’ve been hiding it under all that blood purity rubbish.”

            “Speaking of blood purity, my father said that today he was going to instruct our lawyer to draft paperwork re-instating my aunt and my late cousin into the Black family. It should help start an appropriate tend for other pureblood families to follow. They’ll just need you to sign it, since you are the Black heir.”

            “That’s great. Yeah, I’ll sign it, definitely.”

            “Good, then let’s go back into the drawing room; I worry about Mother being left alone with three babies and an old lady,” Draco said, leading Harry back into the house. Harry chuckled at that.

            Harry spent some time with the babies then, playing with Sev and Scorp and then feeding Teddy. He was down on the floor showing Teddy to Scorp, when the younger baby started grunting and then produced the most awful smell.

            “Um, I think Teddy needs a nappy change,” Harry announced.

            “I’ll show you where the wipes and stuff are, but I’m not changing him,” Draco said, standing up from the sofa.

            They walked into the nursery and over to the changing table. They didn’t want to wake Andy, who was sleeping on the spare bed, so they cast a muffling charm on themselves. Draco laid out the supplies for Harry, before stepping back and busying himself with picking the night’s pajamas. Harry went to work wiping the poo off of Teddy’s bum and a house elf appeared to take the soiled nappy and wipes, vanishing with the stink. Harry did a pretty good job cleaning Teddy up, but he wasn’t comfortable sticking a pin so close to a newborn’s skin.

            “Draco, could you, um, show me how to put his nappy on?” Harry asked quietly, not sure if the muffling charm would extend across the room.

            “It’s the same process as with Sev,” Draco whispered, coming over to Harry.

            “I know, but Teddy is so small and all curled up and I’m worried that I’ll hurt him. I cleaned him up, but could you please, just this once, show me how you do a newborn nappy?”

            “Yeah, I guess.” Draco stepped forward and positioned the nappy underneath the tiny bum and pulled down the legs to get the front into place. “Ah! What is that?” Draco asked, taken by surprise.

            “What? Did I miss some?”

            “No, but I thought this was a boy.”

            “He is a boy.”

            “Then where are the bits? All he has is a tiny misshapen lump.”

            “That _is_ the penis and ballocks. That’s what regular boys look like; the non-Peverell kind.”

            “Ew. You mean he’s gonna continue to poop forever? We can’t just make an appointment for him at St. Mungo’s?” Draco asked incredulously.

            “Yep.”

            “I can’t believe I’ve got a non-Peverell wizard in my family. With all the pooping, it’s no wonder the Dark Lord managed to convince so many people to abandon the halfbloods.”

            “What? Yesterday you said that Teddy’s magical ability made his blood pure enough. Are you taking that back, just because he’s not a Peverell?”

            “No, I’m saying that you’re gonna have to change all those poopy nappies, not me. Girls poop and we don’t kick them out of the family.”

            “Wait, what’s gonna happen if we have a daughter? Are you gonna refuse to change her nappies too?”

            “Just the poopy ones.”

            That reminded Harry of what Hermione had said about offering to change nappies in exchange for Draco carrying the next baby. He was just trying to figure out how to bring it up, when Narcissa called them down for dinner.

            “We can talk about this more later,” Harry said, picking Teddy up.

            They went downstairs and joined the rest of the family, including a newly returned Lucius, in the dining room. Narcissa informed Draco that Scorpius had refused the bottle again, so Draco nursed him while he ate.

            The dinner table conversation was mostly filled with Lucius’ retelling of how his various errands had gone and which errands still had to be done. Lucius promised to book Harry and Draco appointments for their apparition tests, because he had to stop by the Ministry tomorrow anyway; his lawyer had informed him that he had a meeting with the Aurors. It wouldn’t end his legal problems, nor would he likely be sent off to Azkaban, but it was to be the start of a dialog in which he would have to account for his actions and prove that he’d turned over a new leaf in order to maintain his freedom.

            When Lucius finished talking, Narcissa asked Harry about his day. Harry said his visit with the Weasleys went well, leaving out the disagreement he’d had with Ron, and instead focusing on how he practically got mobbed in Diagon Ally on his way to Gringotts. Draco laughed and Lucius insisted that Harry was going to have to travel with back up for the time being, in case he was mobbed again. Harry thought he could handle himself and mentioned his invisibility cloak, which Lucius didn’t think was good enough. But when Lucius started talking of hiring a body guard, Harry put his foot down and refused.

            After dinner, Narcissa watched the sleeping Teddy, while Draco and Harry took the twins upstairs to talk. They put the boys on the bed and sat on either side of the boys.

            “So what did you want to talk about?” Draco asked, handing the boys each a toy he’d just summoned.

            “I don’t know what it is with girls and feelings, but Hermione made me promise I’d talk to you about mine.”

            “Oh? So my mother was right and you _do_ have feelings.”

            “Yeah, but not about the war. Well sorta about the war, but mostly about getting pregnant. I’m still on war mode and it seems like I’ve still got dark wizards after me, horcruxes to find, and Voldemort to defeat. We’ve already got three babies and I just don’t feel like having another one right now. I know you said you want to wait a few months first, but I don’t know if I’ll be ready that soon,” Harry admitted in a quick rambling manner. This was a big confession for him and he let out a large breath of relief.

            “Alright, if you feel that way, we can put it off. Just know that the longer you wait, the less I’ll be helping and the more you’ll be doing on your own. I can give you two years, but if our daughter isn’t born by then, you’ll have to take off time from work and if it takes you more than five years, you’ll have to stay home with her for five years, because I need a chance to have a career too.”

            “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. I think having a baby in two years sounds a lot more doable than having one next year.”

            “Good. Is that all of your feelings, or do you have more?” His mother always had more than one feeling when she felt the desire to force him to listen to them, but Draco was desperately hoping Harry wasn’t that emotional.

            “Well I do have one more…”

            “Just spit it out; it can’t be that bad and then we won’t talk about feeling again until the next war.”

            “Okay, yeah, but I don’t think you’ll like it. You see, um, yeah, er, I um don’t feel comfortable um when I think about it, you know, being _me_ pregnant. When it was you, I could protect you, hide you away and stand guard, or lead them away from you.” Harry paused for a minute while he figured out what to say next. “But if it’s me and um, someone comes after me again, and given my history that tends to happen annually, then it’ll be harder for me to protect myself when I’m pregnant. Maybe it’s because I’m still in war mode, but until I feel safe and I’m sure no one is gonna come after me and attack me…well I’d just prefer it if you were pregnant and I could concentrate on protecting you, like I did last time.”

            “I hope no one comes after you ever again; I want you to feel safe, Harry. I don’t want anything to happen to you while you’re pregnant either, but even with me, sometimes things happen. Just look at Scorpius.”

            “Yeah, I know you got attacked too, but that won’t happen next time. Everyone will know you’re pregnant, we’ll only let people we trust in the house, you won’t have to go to school, and Ron definitely will _not_ be invited over.”

            “We can do the same for you: you can stay in the house for the entire pregnancy, although I can’t imagine you wanting that.”

            “I don’t; I’d go stir crazy and wouldn’t be able to stand it…. Hermione had a suggestion for a compromise. She said I should offer to do something for you, to make your life easier, in exchange for you having the baby in my place. Like, I could change all the dirty nappies or something. Would you be willing to compromise like that? It doesn’t have to be nappies; it could be whatever you wanted.”

            “Harry,” Draco said and waited until Harry was looking him in the eyes before continuing, “I already took a contraceptive potion; a long-term contraceptive potion. I won’t be able to get pregnant again. I thought I was done having babies and that we’d agreed it would be you next time. So either it’s you or it doesn’t happen. I really would like a daughter though.”

            “Oh…I had no idea you’d done that,” Harry said feeling sheepish. It seemed Hermione was right. He’d almost done the same and then they’d both be infertile. “Is there a potion you can take to reverse it?”

            “No, it’s permanent for the next thirty years.”

            “Then it’ll really have to be me or no little girl at all?” Harry asked. Now that he faced the possibility of it not happening, he suddenly realized how much he _did_ want a little girl. Draco had been talking about it like it was reality for so long that he felt like he was losing his little girl by not wanting to get pregnant.

            “I’m afraid so. But you know, Harry, I never saw myself as pregnant either. I always thought it’d be my husband, but then once I was, it felt right. There’s something about pregnancy hormones that make having a baby and being pregnant suddenly sound like a _really_ good idea. Personally, I think the little parasites are slipping something into our blood that alters brain function, but it doesn’t matter why it happens, just that it happens. So all this worry you’re feeling, it’ll probably go away the moment you actually get pregnant,” Draco said.

            In the months since having the babies, the pregnancy hormones had receded and Draco began to realize how much his thoughts and feeling had been influenced by them. What little reading he’d on the subject suggested that Peverell pregnancy hormones were more intense than the garden variety, being reinforced by magic and centaur pheromones, designed to keep the parents together so that the pregnant partner could draw magic from the other parent. He hadn’t known it was happening at the time, but now that it wasn’t happening, the difference was glaring him in the face. He seriously wondered if his entire relationship was based on overactive pregnancy hormones pushing him to be with the father of his children, or if their love was real.

            “Really? Now that you’re no longer pregnant, do you feel differently?” Harry asked.

            “Yeah, I do. Don’t get me wrong, I love our boys and I’m happy with our marriage, but it definitely _feels_ different. When you touch me, it’s just a touch. Before, back when I was pregnant, you would touch me and it felt like magic; like just a bit of euphoria with every touch. Did you ever feel it?” Professor Snape had informed him that it was in fact a magic transfusion that was needed to maintain the healthy pregnancy, which was why Draco had been so exhausted when separated from Harry.

            “No, I don’t think so. When I touch you now, Draco, it feels just as good as it did when I touched you before.”

            “But you don’t seem at all sensitive to magic, so maybe it was there and you couldn’t feel it. I’m curious to see whether the feeling comes back when you’re pregnant. That’s, er, one of the reasons why I wanted you to get pregnant right away, so that I could feel it again.”

            “Oh. It would be nice to see if I can feel it.”

            “Are you still scared about being pregnant, even after we’ve talked about it?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Well let’s wait three months and then see how you feel. I don’t want you to get pregnant before you’re ready.”

            “Thank you,” Harry said and leaned in, over the boys, and kissed Draco. Well really he was only over Scorpius, because Sev had scooted himself further down the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who were wondering why Draco seems cold or distant, I hope this chapter helped explain it, as well as why Draco warmed up to Harry so fast. It wasn’t responsible for all of Draco’s feelings, but it is hard for him to fall back into his groove with Harry when that anchor is gone. I’ve had several reviewers state that the draw of mates seen in many creature fics is absent in this story and that has never been true. In my experience, it is very difficult to realize you’re being manipulated while it’s happening, so I didn’t have Draco consciously notice it until now; it’s only hindsight that is 20/20.


	18. Chapter18

            Lucius had a number of legal matters to tend to Tuesday, including his much anticipated first meeting with Aurors. And since he was going to the Ministry to speak to the Aurors and the Aurors had also owled Harry asking him to come in, Harry ended up going with.

            Narcissa had gotten Andy invited over the Rosier’s place for afternoon tea, so the women were looking forward to that. Druella would stay behind to help out with the babies, but this was a big day for Andy and signaled her return to pureblood society. Andy of course wasn’t too eager to be let back in, but it was the principal of the thing and would help set a trend that would hopefully lead to fewer purebloods being kicked out of their families for marrying muggleborns, which would reduce muggleborn prejudice. Plus the Rosiers were family on her mother’s side, so one of the women who would be there was her cousin and the other was her other cousin’s wife, and she did want to catch up with them. And now that Narcissa knew that she was one of the secret keepers, she was able to give Andy the secret, making it infinitely easier for the women to go on little outings like this.

            Draco just hoped that everything would go alright at the Ministry and that Harry and his father would be home in time for him to leave for his scheduled interview with Witch Weekly later. He hated to be late, but then given who he was and what he had to say and show, he was certain that the reporter would still be willing to talk to him if he was. But there was no way he could go before they came home, because he couldn’t leave the three babies when only Grandmother Druella would be home; his mother’s tea started two hours before the interview.

            Lucius and Harry flooed over to the Malfoy lawyer’s office, to collect Lucius’ lawyer, and then to the Ministry. Given the chance to talk to Harry, the Aurors of course pushed Lucius’ scheduled interview back and made him wait for Harry to go first. Harry spent several hours going over the details of the war, including the roles Draco, Lucius, Snape, and Mrs. Goyle had played and how they had helped him. A lot of it they had already gathered from Ron and Hermione, but still they wanted to hear it from Harry.

            Finally, just shy of three hours later, the lead Auror informed Harry that the questioning was over for now, but that Harry may need to come back in at a later date or even after they finished talking to Lucius, to answer more questions. And so Lucius and the lawyer went into his interview and the surprise was that one of the Aurors led Harry over to the apparition licensing division to take his apparition test. Harry passed and was back in the Auror department long before Lucius was done. Some of the Aurors were Order members, who Harry recognized and chatted with. The others all wanted to meet him and get his autograph.

            Harry was very grateful when Gawain Robards, head of the Auror department, interceded on his behalf, saying, “Don’t you all have dark wizards and Death Eaters to track down? Get back to work. Harry, please come into my office for a chat.”

            Harry followed Robards to a large corner office with several charmed windows. “Harry. Harry Malfoy, is it?” Robards asked.

            “Yes, um, I married Draco last year.”

            “Then that makes you the new Mr. Lord Malfoy, to the young Draco’s Lord Malfoy. Or do you prefer Savior Malfoy, like the papers are calling you?”

            “I prefer Harry.”

            “Of course you do; they tell me you’re a modest one. And two children too, is that right? You have quite the budding young family,” Robards said.

            “Yes sir.”

            “Well Mr. Malfoy, I have been informed of your intentions to join the Aurors and I asked you in here today to inform you that you already have. Our new Minister of Magic, Minister Shacklebolt, has informed me that as of nine months ago on the date of your seventeenth birthday, you are to be considered an Auror with full benefits making Top Auror pay, same as me. Seems only fair, doesn’t it, after you did more than I did to end the war?”

            “Um, I can’t really judge that sir; I don’t know what you did to end the war.”

            “Nor does anyone else, that’s the problem. But no matter, I’m to train you up and get you working for us properly. You have a month’s paid vacation first, of course; you deserve it after nine months of working twenty-four hours a day on the run. You’ll be paid for that too, all nine months with time and a half for the extra sixteen hours in the day; full-time is considered only eight hours mind you. I figure Kingsley wants to repay you for saving all our arses this way instead of the typical lump sum reward, but I certainly don’t mind if it gets me the world’s greatest Auror on my staff.”

            “Um sir, how can I start in a month when training doesn’t start until the fall?”

            “Good question, Auror Malfoy. You see we’ve had so many fatalities with the war that we’re having a special training session starting up early, July first to be exact. We’d all be honored if you’d be there. Weasley and Granger are welcome as well. They’ll both be paid introductory Auror salary for the time they put in with you, as your field team, according to the paperwork. Full benefits and a month paid vacation for them too. No need to apply for the job; they need only show up and they’re in, same as you.”

            “Oh…”

            “You don’t sound too thrilled about that. Did you change your mind? I know you haven’t completed your NEWTs yet, but they’ve been waved. There’ll just be the standard training courses and then maybe an extra class or two on any subject you’re weak in, but it’ll all be paid for by the Ministry.”

            “Um, that’s good. But what I’m concerned about is that I won’t be ready so soon. I’ve just gotten home and met my twins for the first time. There’s a lot going on at home that I need to get settled first,” Harry said, because of the chance he may be pregnant by then; of course he didn’t tell Robards that, since he was still just starting to think about the idea himself. “I might show up for the regular fall training session, but I can’t make any guarantees. I was thinking of taking the next year or two off, but I promise I’ll be in when I’m ready.”

            “I can give you the month with full pay and an additional six months of time off without pay, in which you still get to keep your benefits, such as life insurance and health insurance. The health insurance covers your spouse and children as well.”

            “That’s great! My son Scorpius has an appointment at St. Mungo’s in two weeks, will it cover that?” The news of his benefits was a great relief to Harry, because he had no idea how much it would cost to fix that leg.

            “Yes. Is there something wrong with the little guy?”

            “Yes, he’s got a birth defect; a crippled leg we were hoping they could fix.”

            “Oh, the poor dear; I do hope they can set it right. I doubt you’ve taken him in to the hospital before this, but if you, your husband, or your children have been to the hospital or to see a healer in the last nine months, that would be covered too. Even if you’ve already paid it, our health insurance will reimburse you for it.”

            “Severus Snape covered all Draco’s medical care while pregnant, so that he didn’t have to go in. But actually, Scorpius has been to a hospital before. He almost died at birth, but the Malfoys apparated him to a muggle hospital in France, because they didn’t think it’d be safe to try a wizarding hospital. The muggles saved him and he stayed there for a week. I’ve seen the bill for it and it’s quite a lot.”

            “Severus Snape’s care probably counts as seeing a midwife. If you get a list of the dates and amount of time Draco was seen and for what, then a check can be made out to the late Professor’s estate. I’m not sure if our insurance covers muggle hospitals, but let me call my secretary and have her figure it out for you. Hold on just a minute,” Robards said, before calling a young brunette witch in and ordering her to do just that.

            “Yes sir,” the secretary agreed before bustling out efficiently.

            “I’ll owl you with whatever she finds,” Robards said, turning back to Harry. “If it’s covered, you can owl her a copy of the bill and I’ll see to it that she submits the proper paperwork.”

            “Thank you, sir. And I’ll ask my mother-in-law if she can help me put together a list of Snape’s care.”

            “Do you have any more questions about your benefits, or would you like me to explain the training process?”

            “Um, I’d like to hear about the training process.”

            Robards gave Harry a manual with the outline for the Auror training program, along with several much smaller booklets with information regarding the program and a set of books to study for the first year Auror test, just in case he was bored and wanted to look ahead. It was all for Harry to keep, provided he promised not to let anyone else, especially his father-in-law, read.

            While Harry was talking to Robards, Lucius was explaining to Aurors Savage and Proudfoot how he was completely innocent of all wrong doing. Pre-incarceration in Azkaban, he was a spy for the Order, helping Severus Snape gather intelligence on the Dark Lord. No one but Snape and Dumbledore knew, and they were both dead, so his story couldn’t be proven false beyond a shadow of a doubt. Besides, he had been pardoned by Minister for Magic Pius Thicknesse for all those crimes anyway, so however you looked at it, he was off the hook.

            Upon his release from Azkaban, Lucius really was on Harry’s side and he had plenty of evidence to that effect from this past year, including taking care of Draco, Scorpius, and Severus, who were Harry’s family; he may have mentioned how he saved Scorpius’ life a few too many times, but really one couldn’t mention something like that enough.    And then there was Lucius’ actual release from Azkaban to deal with. If Lucius escaped, he would be sent back. But since he was released and even had release papers signed by corrupt Ministry officials and a full pardon signed by Pius Thicknesse, he would probably get away with it.

            “Look, how many times do I have to say it? Ministry officials came to my cell and ordered the dementors to let me out. Aurors Le Feuvre and Dawlish were there; granted Le Feuvre was a spy for the Dark Lord and Dawlish was converted to His service, but they were there nonetheless. They let me out and took me to the Dark Lord. I went to my home, Malfoy Manor, where I procured my old wand. Then I received an owl from my son, so I deserted the Dark Lord and waited for further contact. There was no escape,” Lucius said for probably the hundredth time.

            Apparently the answer to Lucius’ question was several more times, because the Aurors asked him again. It was well passed lunch time when they finally let him go, advising him that they would be in touch to further discuss these matters. Lucius and his lawyer found Harry in the Auror lunchroom enjoying a lunch that had been provided to him by the head of the Auror department, while listening to tales of crime fighting first hand from the surviving Aurors. Lucius wasted no time in collecting Harry, before returning to the villa.

            Once Harry was dropped off, Lucius went back to his lawyer’s office to discuss how the meeting with the Aurors had gone. After that the two of them would head to the Manor to do damage assessment. The lawyer was going, in case there was anything that needed to be turned over to the Aurors that was left behind. There probably would be, given that the Dark Lord and the Lestranges had never made it back to the Manor; Lucius fully expected to have to call the Aurors into the Manor by the end of the day, but first he wanted to sift through the belongings of the deceased himself, to make sure there wasn’t anything he wanted. Plus he needed to hide all of the Malfoy family’s darker heirlooms from grubby Auror hands.

            Harry arrived to find Narcissa and Andy already gone off to their tea. Druella was supposed to be around, but Draco was alone with all three boys. Scorpius was sitting up on the floor in front of a house elf, holding onto the elf’s hand. Sev was on the other side of the elf, on his hands and knees, pulling at the pillow case the elf wore. Teddy was in Draco’s arms, while Draco fed the baby a bottle. This was only the second time Harry had seen Draco hold Teddy and he had to admit that he liked what he saw; Draco was good with the baby and seemed to be much more attached than Draco had been the day before.

            Harry took a seat next to Draco and asked, “How’s it going?”

            “Great. The boys love Mipsy,” Draco said, indicating the elf.

            “Elf!” Sev shouted.

            The elf turned around and asked, “Yes Master Severus, sir? How is Mipsy helping the little Master, sir?”

            “Elf!” Sev repeated.

            Scorpius pulled on Mipsy’s hand again and said, “Eeeeeeeffff.”

            “Yes Master Scorpius, sir? How is Mipsy helping Master Scorpius, sir?” Mipsy asked, turning her head back around.

            “I can see,” Harry acknowledged. “Should I intervene?”

            “Only if you want to get cried at.”

            “Okay.”

            “I’m glad you’re back, because I’ve that interview with Witch Weekly soon.”

            “You’re leaving me with all three kids? I don’t think I can even handle two, let alone three!”

            “I won’t be gone nearly as long as you were and Grandmother Druella agreed to help you; she’s in her room doing old people stuff.”

            “Could I take them to the Burrow and ask Molly and Hermione to help me?”

            “No.”

            “Could I ask either of them over here to help?”

            “Hermione is welcome. Do you want me to leave you the secret?” Draco asked as he put down the bottle, which disappeared, and began to burp Teddy. They were really giving the secret out all over the place now; first Harry, then Aunt Andy and Grandmother Druella, and now Hermione too.

            “Yes please. I hope she’s available on such short notice.”

            Harry took Teddy from Draco, so that Draco could get up. Harry burped Teddy, while Draco wrote down the address to the villa for Hermione.

            When Draco finished, he said, “Now this is for Hermione’s eyes only, not any of the Weasleys, especially Ronald Weasley. After she reads it, I want you to destroy it. Eat it if you have to, but don’t let Weasleys into our home.”

            Draco handed Harry the slip of parchment, which Harry tucked inside his robes, before resuming his patting of Teddy’s tiny back. While Harry was taking care of Teddy, Draco rescued Mipsy, by picking up the twins, and taking them over to the sofa where Harry sat with Teddy. He asked Mipsy for a bottle, who supplied one almost instantaneously. Draco gave the bottle to Sev, dismissed the elf, and began to nurse Scorpius.

            “I need to firecall Hermione and ask if she can come over,” Harry said.

            “Sure, just set Teddy in the bouncer and he’ll be fine,” Draco said.

            “Okay.” Harry got up to put Teddy into the bouncer with the green sea turtles, which was in the middle of the floor next to the bouncer with the blue sea turtles.

            “Not that one; that’s Scorpius’ and he still uses it. Remember, Scorp is green? Put him in Sev’s; Sev hasn’t sat still long enough to use his in a month.”

            “Oh, alright,” Harry said, putting Teddy into the blue chair. “Why’s it matter?”

            “A lot of Scorp’s things are charmed especially for him and his leg. It’s easier to keep their things separate than to remember what’s charmed with which spell.”

            “Yeah, okay.” That made sense to Harry, especially because he had no idea what was charmed, so he might as well go along with Draco’s color separation scheme. “Is there a reason Scorp is green? Are you trying to turn him into a Slytherin?” Harry teased.

            “Blue and green are standard boy colors. By the time I woke up after the birth, Professor Snape was already using the blue things for Sev and it stuck.”

            “Oh,” Harry said, suddenly reminded of Professor Snape’s sacrifice again. He took a deep breath and went to the fireplace to floo Hermione.

            Harry hadn’t bothered to turn the bouncer on and Teddy started fussing, so Draco let go of Scorpius just long enough to pull out his wand and activate the bouncer, before putting his wand away and returning his hand to his son.

            “She agreed to come in half an hour and I handed her the secret. She handed it back to me when she finished reading it,” Harry said, lighting up the secret and letting it burn.

            “Good.”

            Harry sat next to Draco and took Sev and the bottle from Draco, while he told Draco that he’d passed his apparition test, which was good news and meant he would be capable of apparating away if he was cornered by obsessive fans. Draco was happy to hear it, even though he still had to go in to take his test, so Harry went on to tell Draco that he was accepted to join the Aurors whenever he wanted, with back pay and medical benefits.

            Draco was happy to hear that one of his suggestions had been taken, but he didn’t let on to Harry that he had suggested it. Instead he sat and listened to Harry’s account and tried to look like he was happy for Harry, even though he was scared to death that Harry would be killed in the line of duty.

            Sev finished his bottle and started pushing off of Harry, like he wanted down, so Harry put him into his jumping thing. “Draco, what’s this thing called anyway?” Harry asked as Sev hit a button and made the lights and music come on.

            “A jumper; actually that kind is a stationary jumper,” Draco answered, still feeding Scorpius. Breast feeding took longer than bottle feeding.

            “Oh, yeah, ‘cause he jumps in it, I get it. Will you be alright with them for a minute? I’ve got to take a leak,” Harry said.

            “Yeah, they’re fine.”

            “In that case, I’d like to change too before Hermione gets here,” Harry said, before leaving the room. He was wearing a set of nice wizarding robes he had borrowed from Draco’s closet and he didn’t want to ruin them.

            The kids were fine at first. Scorpius finished nursing and wanted down too, so Draco set Scorpius in the green jumper. But then Teddy started wailing, so Draco picked him up out of the blue bouncer and took the baby back to the sofa to figure out the problem. Teddy had just eaten, so Draco started patting his back, to see if Teddy had another burp. Teddy calmed down a bit at that and his wails turned to quiet fussing noises, which he was still making when the fire roared green, Hermione Granger stepped through the floo, and Scorpius’ head snapped immediately to the unfamiliar witch before he let out a piercing scream.

            “Calm down, Hermione,” Draco ordered as he got up with Teddy in one arm and picked Scorpius up with the other.

            Hermione froze in place examining the apparent scene of domestic bliss that had shattered upon her arrival. The black haired baby was screeching and it seemed to be because of her and Draco had said to calm down. She didn’t know what the problem was, but she knew occlumency, so she cleared her mind and calmed herself down.

            “Mipsy! I need a green soother!” Draco called from the couch where he had just sat back down with Teddy and Scorpius. Scorpius was still screeching and Teddy was fussing harder.

            A second later an elf was handing Draco a soother and Sev shouted, “Elf!” so the elf turned and asked the young master what she could do for him.

            Draco shoved the soother into Scorpius’ mouth and held it there a moment while the raven haired baby stopped screaming. When Scorpius had calmed down a bit, he sat Scorpius in his lap and used his free hands to put Teddy back onto his shoulder and resume the burping.

            Teddy let out a large burp just before Sev let out a loud string of hisses. Draco turned his attention to the baby still in the jumper and saw that the house elf was holding the pet snake in front of Sev, who was reaching out to grab it, while hissing in Hermione’s direction.

            “No Mipsy, take the snake away,” Draco ordered.

            “Yes Master Draco, sir,” Mipsy said vanishing the snake. “Mipsy is sorry, Master Severus, sir. Should Mipsy punish herself, Master Severus, sir?”

            “Mipsy, why did you get the snake?” Draco asked.

            “Master Severus, sir, asked Mipsy for it, sir,” Mipsy replied.

            “How? All the boy said was, ‘Elf.’”

            “Master Severus, sir, said, ‘Elf,’ sir, and then Master Severus, sir, said, ‘Snake,’ sir.”

            “He said snake in English Mipsy? Or was it in another language?” Draco asked. He certainly hadn’t heard the boy say anything other than elf and hissing noises.

            “Mipsy believes Master Severus, sir, said snake in Parseltongue, sir.”

            “Do you speak Parseltongue, Mipsy?” Draco asked.

            “Mipsy only knows a few words, sir.”

            “How do you know those words?”

            “From the elven colony, sir. Mipsy heard Master Severus, sir, speaking Parseltongue, sir, so Mipsy asked the other elves to teach Mipsy a few words, sir. Mipsy is trying to learn, sir, so Mipsy may serve Young Master Severus, sir, properly, sir.”

            “Which elves know Parseltongue, Mipsy?” Draco was curious, because to his knowledge, there were no wizards left alive who spoke it, besides Severus.

            “The Gaunt family elves, sir. The Gaunt family has no more sirs and ma’ams, but the elves still belong to the House of Gaunt outside Little Hangleton, sir. The elves haven’t been called in many years and stay at the elven colony, sir.”

            “Do these elves have a master, Mipsy?”

            “The Master of the Gaunt family elves, sir, was the Dark Lord, sir. Mipsy thinks the Dark Lord, sir, was a bad master, because he was never calling his elves, sir. The Dark Lord, sir, is dead and the elves do not know whom to call Master now, sir. The elves are very upset, sir, and the elves did not teach Mipsy any knew words when Mipsy went to the elven colony yesterday, sir.”

            “You may tell the elves that if they are without a master, they may come here and I’ll be their master, if they wish. I believe my father is the only Death Eater left standing in a position to take them in, although I hear the Goyles might get off, so if the elves so choose, they may also ask Mrs. Goyle to be their mistress.”

            “Oh thank you, sir! Master Draco Malfoy, sir, is such a kind master, sir. Mipsy will tell the Gaunt elves, sir.”

            “And Mipsy, please don’t bring the snake or do anything else Master Severus requires of you in Parseltongue, without checking with me first,” Draco said. The elf nodded. “You are dismissed, Mipsy.”

            Mipsy left with a crack and Severus started crying now that his elf was gone. Teddy and Scorpius were finally quiet, so Draco summoned the two bouncers for them, before retrieving Severus from the jumper. “No snakes without an adult, Sev,” Draco said.

            Sev soon forgot what he was crying about and wanted down, so Draco set him on the floor next to the bouncers and turned his attention to Hermione, who was still standing silently by the fireplace. “Sorry about that; it can get hectic around here with three babies and I had no idea the Gaunt family still had house elves, nor that they spoke Parseltongue. You may have a seat in one of the armchairs. I don’t suspect Scorpius will start crying again unless you cast a spell. What did you cast before coming here?”

            “I sort of got in an argument with Ron and hexed him. Why was Scorpius crying? Did I do something wrong?” Hermione asked, sitting down.

            Severus had crawled the half a foot over to Scorpius’ bouncer and was using the sides to pull himself up onto his knees, to look at the bar of toys with flashing lights and music.

            “Yes, you did: you cast a violent spell before coming here and he is sensitive. Please don’t cast any curses, jinxes, or hexes while here or even shortly before coming here.”

            “Oh my! I’m so sorry; I didn’t know. It won’t happen again.”

            “See that it doesn’t.” Scorpius’ bouncer was sagging under the additional weight, so Draco picked Sev back up, pulling him off of the bouncer. “Sev, I know you don’t actually want in a bouncer, so why don’t you go back in your jumper?” Draco asked, taking Sev back over to the blue jumper and depositing the child. This time Sev was happy to play with his own toy and bounce away, so Draco went back to the sofa and the two babies sitting quietly in their bouncers.

            “Draco, is Severus a Parselmouth? Is that why he was hissing at me?” Having one baby screech and the other hiss at her was fairly unnerving to Hermione.

            “Yes, we believe so. Although Harry no longer is one, so I’ve no idea what he’s saying.” While Draco was talking, Harry came into the room, freshly changed into lounge clothes.

            “What’s going on? Did something happen? I didn’t hear anything up in the room,” Harry said.

            “Probably because the muffling charm is still on the walls. That’s the problem with them; you put them up when you don’t want to be woken up and you forget to take them down when you’re done, and then you miss it when Wizarding War Number Three breaks out in your drawing room,” Draco replied.

            “It wasn’t that bad; just all three babies were crying. Severus is quite frightening with a snake and hissing, by the way,” Hermione added.

            “He was hissing at you?” Harry asked.

            Draco explained what had just happened with Sev, the elf, and the snake. “I suspect Sev was trying to protect his brother from Hermione, because she came in crackling of violent magic from a fight with Weasley.”

            Harry looked at Hermione questioningly, so Hermione said, “Ronald was being a prat again, so I may have hexed him a little bit. Next time I’ll hex him well before coming over. I’m sorry; I didn’t know you had a sensitive or a parselmouth.”

            “And a metamorphmagus,” Draco added.

            “And a metamorphmagus,” Harry agreed, picking Teddy up from the bouncer and sitting on the sofa next to Draco.

            Draco kissed Harry, but it wasn’t deep or long, because there were three babies and a witch in the room. “Well then if everything’s settled, I best be going. I don’t want to be late for my appointment. Oh, and Harry, it’s nap time. Scorp is practically asleep and Sev is rubbing his eyes over there,” Draco said pointing to Sev right before the boy yawned. “See, he admits it.”

            “Alright, I’ll put them down. Is there anything I need for that?”

            “Yeah; I gave Scorp a soother, so Sev will get mad if he doesn’t get one too. Perhaps next time you go to a muggle store, you could buy Teddy a few soothers.”

            “Yeah, okay,” Harry agreed.

            Draco nodded and then left via the floo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next will be Harry and Hermione’s adventure with naptime…


	19. Chapter19

            “Mipsy!” Harry called and the elf appeared. “Can you get me a blue soother?” A blue soother appeared in Mipsy’s hand. She passed it to him and he dismissed the elf. “So Hermione, are you up for an adventure in naptime?”

            “Sure, what should I do?”

            “Why don’t you take Teddy and I’ll get Scorp and Sev. I don’t think Scorp likes new people, because it took him a day to warm up to me,” Harry said, passing Teddy over to Hermione.

            Hermione agreed, so Harry went and retrieved Sev from the jumper. Harry handed the baby the blue soother, which Sev gladly popped into his mouth. Then Harry went back to the green bouncer, where Scorpius was sleeping.

            “Do you think I’ll wake him if I pick him up, Hermione?”

            “Probably, Harry. It might be best to leave him in the bouncer.”

            “Probably. I’ll cast a monitoring charm on him so we can hear him while we’re putting Sev to sleep.” Harry cast the charm and then led Hermione upstairs to the nursery. “The blue things are Sev’s and the green are Scorp’s.” Harry said, placing Sev into the blue crib. “Draco said a lot of Scorp’s things are charmed specifically to work better for him, because of the leg; it’s best not to mix them up.”

            “Alright. Where does Teddy sleep?”

            “In the basinet, but he doesn’t take naps at the same time as the twins. If he’s awake, it’s best to keep him up so that he’ll sleep through the night.” Sev turned over and started using the bars of the crib to pull himself into a kneeling position. “No Sev, lie down,” Harry said, laying the baby back down. Sev cried and spit out the soother, so Harry picked it back up and put it back in Sev’s mouth, but Sev continued to cry. “What should I do, Hermione?”

            “Perhaps take him to the rocker for a bit,” Hermione suggested. She was about to sit down in the rocker with Teddy, but if Harry needed it for Sev, she could stand. She was thinking about sitting on the bed, but she didn’t know whose bed it was.

            “Okay.” Harry picked up Sev, taking him to the rocker. He noticed that Hermione didn’t have anywhere to sit, so he said, “You can sit on the bed, Hermione; it’s a guest bed that Andy’s been using and I don’t think she’ll mind.”

            Hermione sat down on the bed and Harry rocked Sev, who continued to cry, making hissing sounds in between his wails. One of the sounds Sev kept making sounded like, “Sssoorr-ee-usssss.”

            “Hermione, do you think he’s saying Scorpius?” Harry asked, after about the tenth time Severus said it.

            “Oh, yeah, that could be it. Perhaps Mipsy might know; she seemed to understand Severus earlier.”

            “Mipsy!” Harry called and the elf appeared. “What is Sev saying?”

            “Master Severus, sir, is saying, ‘Brother,’ sir, and Master Severus, sir, is saying, ‘Sor-e-us,’ sir.’

            “Is Soreus, Scorpius, Mipsy?” Harry asked.

            “Mipsy does not know, sir.”

            “Thank you, Mipsy,” Harry said, before dismissing the elf.

            “He must want Scorpius with him to go to sleep,” Hermione concluded.

            “Yeah, can you watch him while I go get Scorpius?” Harry asked, setting Sev back down in the blue crib. Sev was already rolling over and crawling towards the rail.

            “Yes, of course,” Hermione said, getting up and putting Teddy into the nearby basinet, which had the same blue sea turtle pattern as the crib.

            Harry went downstairs to retrieve the sleeping Scorpius and Severus pulled himself up onto his knees, using the crib railing again, staring after Harry. Hermione went over to Severus and started to talk to him, telling him, “Daddy will be right back with Scorpius,” but she didn’t know if she should pick Severus up, or if that would make it worse.

            “Sssoor-ee-ussss,” Sev repeated.

            “Yes, Scorpius. Daddy’s getting him right now,” Hermione agreed.

            “Ssssoooor-ee-usssss,” Sev said again, before letting out a wail.

            Harry returned carefully carrying a sleeping Scorpius. “Shush, Sev, you’re gonna wake Scorp,” Harry whispered as he put Scorpius into the green crib. Scorpius stirred and sucked his soother, but didn’t wake, so Harry went and picked up Sev. “See Sev, Scorp’s right there.”

            Sev reached out for his brother, but Harry was worried that Sev would wake Scorp, so he held Sev back, only letting him look in Scorp’s crib. “Ssssooor-ee-usss,” Sev said again and opened and closed his hands in the gesture that Harry had seen the twins use when they wanted Draco to pick them up.

            “No Sev, you’ll wake Scorp up,” Harry said.

            Hermione was amazed that Teddy wasn’t fussing with all this noise, so she went back over to the basinet to check on the baby. Teddy was still awake and looking back up at her with eyes that were mostly blue and hair that was initially teal, but quickly flickered to aqua.

            Sev said, “Ssssoor-ee-usssss,” one more time, before screaming at the top of his lungs.

            Hearing Severus’ wail, Druella came hurrying in as quickly as her old legs could carry her, quickly taking him from Harry and asking, “What’s wrong? What did you do to him, Harry?”

            “Nothing. I was just trying to put him to bed and he was asking for Scorpius, but Scorpius was already asleep,” Harry said.

            “Sssooor-ee-ussss,” Sev agreed, calming down a bit now that he was in his great grandmother’s arms.

            “Did you just say Scorpius?” Druella asked the baby in her arms, before looking down at the still sleeping Scorpius in the green crib. “Alright, but don’t wake him.” Druella slowly lowered Sev into the crib and Sev’s crying turned immediately into quiet gasps for air as the baby calmed down.

            “Um, here, he spit this out,” Harry said, handing Druella the blue soother. Druella gave it to Sev, who stopped crying and lay down next to Scorpius, who was amazingly, still asleep. “How did Scorpius not wake up with Sev screaming like that?”

            “Muffling charm on all the cribs, basinets, and cradles. I suspect Teddy and Scorpius didn’t hear a thing,” Druella replied, indicating Teddy, who was now happily changing his hair color between scarlet and aqua and every color in between.

            “Brilliant,” Harry replied and truly it was; otherwise, the twins would probably wake each other up all through the night.

            “They don’t usually insist on sleeping with each other, but sometimes when they’re agitated they do. I suspect it’s all the new people in the house; he probably didn’t like when Draco left him with two strangers,” Druella said.

            “I’m not a stranger; I’m his dad,” Harry protested.

            “He just met you, Harry. You need to give him time,” Druella said.

            Harry agreed and Druella excused herself. Sev and Scorp were both sleeping peacefully, so he cast a monitoring charm on them. Then Harry and Hermione took Teddy back down to the drawing room.

            “It’s been quite the adventure already, hasn’t it?” Hermione asked, sitting down on the sofa with Teddy.

            “Yeah; I’ve never been left alone with them before. That’s sort of why I wanted you to come over and help me while Draco’s gone. I can’t believe he watched all three of them all morning by himself,” Harry replied, sitting next to her.

            “When I first appeared in the floo, Draco looked completely fine with all three of them quiet, but then as soon as I stepped out, Scorpius was screaming and then Teddy was crying and then Severus was hissing at me with an elf and a snake. Why is there even a snake in the house?”

            “Draco bought it for him Sunday. Of all the things Draco couldn’t get in hiding, apparently the one thing he wanted most was a snake for the little parselmouth.”

            “I still can’t believe that little boy was talking to a snake! And then he said Scorpius’ name and the word elf too; he’s very advanced.”

            “Scorpius is advanced too, just in different ways. They’re both highly intelligent and magical.”

            “I’m sure. Does it matter which one of these chairs I set Teddy in? I assume they’re originally for your twins and that Teddy doesn’t have one of his own.”

            “The blue one. Sev doesn’t use his anymore, so Draco gave it to Teddy. The cradles and the basinets were all Draco’s too, but we’ve been using them for Teddy. Apparently Lucius carved the two cradles for the twins after they were born.”

            “Oh, I didn’t think he was the sort. It’s hard to picture Lucius doing something with his own two hands.”

            “Yeah, but he must’ve. I mean, have you seen the cradles?”

            “No.”

            Harry summoned the cradle from the dining room and showed it to Hermione. It was made out of a dark cherry colored wood, just like everything else in the nursery and like all of Scorpius’ things, it had a green and gold pattern on it, but with scorpions instead of sea turtles. The cradle was covered in intricate scorpion carvings and the head had Scorpius’ name. “Severus’ cradle is blue and silver with geckos. That one says, ‘Hyperion,’ because that was what they were calling him before Professor Snape died.”

            “Wow, he clearly put a lot of work into this,” Hermione agreed. “He’s still playing nice? He hasn’t caused any problems?”

            “Yeah, he’s been fine, no problems. He even took me with him to the Ministry today. I got my apparition license and talked to the Aurors. Auror Robards was really nice and told me that you, Ron, and I’ve got jobs with him, we don’t even need to put in an application; we just have to show up. He even said the Ministry is going to pay the three of us for the time we spent in hiding, taking down Voldemort. He said I’ll get top Auror pay, but you and Ron will get the introductory Auror pay. That’s a lot of money, and with three kids, I need it.”

            “So are you and Draco taking in Teddy then? I was surprised to see how good Draco was with him.”

            “Maybe; I’ve got to talk to Andy about it. Draco said he’d take him, but only if we’re adopting him. He doesn’t want to go halfway with it.”

            “That’s good, if not unexpected.”

            “Yeah, I was surprised. Draco brought it up before I’d even considered it. But then Draco’s the one producing milk for Teddy now and Teddy is adorable, so I can see how he’s gotten attached so quickly.”

            “When are you going to speak with Andy about it?”

            “I’m not sure. We already talked once, a few days ago, but we didn’t come to a real conclusion; we both just sort of said we wanted the other in Teddy’s life and agreed to share him, but Draco wants a real decision about whose house Teddy is gonna live at and whose house Teddy is gonna visit.”

            “Yeah, I can understand that.

            After that Hermione talked about the Weasleys for a bit, but then she changed the subject by asking, “And what about you? How’d the contraceptive spell work? Did you talk to Draco?”

            “I haven’t used the spell yet; Draco doesn’t feel comfortable doing it in a house full of people, but I did talk to him.”

            “And?”

            “And you were right: he already took a permanent contraceptive potion, so if I took one too, we’d be infertile.”

            “Oh Harry! That means….you’ll have too…or do you not want to do it at all?”

            “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it. It’ll either have to be me or we’ll just have the three boys and no girls. I still feel uncomfortable thinking about it, but Draco and I had a good talk and he was telling me that he felt the same way until he was actually pregnant and then everything changed. He thinks everything will change for me too… he got me thinking that maybe I could do it and I do want a little princess, Hermione, I do. Draco’s been talking about having one for so long, I’ve gotten used to the idea. Not ever having one just seems wrong.”

            “Oh Harry, I’m sure you’ll be fine having a baby. Just look how good you are with Teddy and the twins!”

            “I’m not nearly as good with them as Draco is, but he said he’d help me out with our daughter and stuff…well he said he wants to have a career and work, but if I have the baby in the next few years, he’ll stay home with the kids while I go to work for a few years.”

            “That’s great!”

            Harry and Hermione talked for a bit longer, before Draco returned; the twins still not up from their nap.

            “How’d it go?” Harry asked as Draco took the seat next to him.

            “Good; Professor Snape should be just a little bit closer to getting his Order of Merlin. Did you know that was the one thing he always said he wanted? An Order of Merlin for all his unsung good deeds?”

            “No, I didn’t know,” Harry replied.

            “I think I heard Dumbledore mention it once; us helping Sirius escape cost Professor Snape an Order of Merlin,” Hermione said.

            Then Draco asked them how it went with the boys. Harry told Draco all about Sev’s little fit and saying Scorpius’ name for the first time.

            “He said Scorpius’ name? Wow! What’d you do to him to make him have to say something so difficult?”

            “Well Scorpius was already asleep, so we left him downstairs in the bouncer. Your grandmum said that Sev was probably upset because he barely knows me and I tried to put him down for a nap without his brother.”

            “Oh the little guy was probably worried about his baby brother. He’s very protective of Scorpius, you know.”

            “No, I didn’t know, but that’s really great,” Harry said thinking about how Sev would have to be protective of Scorp, what with Scorp’s handicap.

            Draco was hungry, so he excused himself to eat a snack. It was an hour and a half ‘til dinner, but he was breast feeding for three these days and couldn’t wait.

            Harry and Hermione stayed in the drawing room, but a few minutes later the monitoring charm went off, so they took Teddy with them upstairs and found the boys sitting up; Sev had his arms holding onto Scorp’s shirt in a little baby hug.

            “Oh how cute they look! Harry, you have to take a picture of this; do you know where their camera is?” Hermione asked.

            Harry didn’t know. He looked around and saw it sitting on a shelf, so he snapped a few pictures. Then he put the camera back and went to pick Severus up, but the baby’s hands clung onto Scorpius’ shirt. “Ssssor-ee-ussss,” Sev insisted.

            Scorpius reached his little hand out and patted Sev, saying, “Hi.”

            “Father’s here now; he’s just downstairs. Let me take you to him, Sev,” Harry said.

            “Harry, try to pick one up with each hand; you are going to carry them both anyway, right?” Hermione asked.

            “Yeah,” Harry replied, reaching in with both hands and trying to get them at the same time. It took a moment, but then he had them.

            Harry and Hermione took the boys back downstairs to Draco, who was eating in the dining room. “Sev won’t let Scorpius go and he’s still saying Soreus,” Harry explained, sitting down next to Draco.

            Scorp patted Sev again and said, “Hi.”

            “Sssooor-eee-ussss,” Sev replied.

            “I’m impressed little man, keep it up and keep an eye on your baby brother like a good big brother. Family comes first with Malfoys, always remember that,” Draco told Sev, giving him a kiss on the head and then taking the baby when Sev let go of Scorp and reached out for Draco.

            “Well I have to be getting back to the Burrow. Owl me the next time I can come over; if you give me more notice, I could stay longer next time,” Hermione suggested.

            “You’re welcome to stop by tomorrow at the same time; I have an interview with the Quibbler,” Draco replied.

            Hermione agreed and handed Teddy over to Draco, who had just finished his snack. Then she saw herself to the fireplace and left.

            Then Harry and Draco took the boys out to the patio to enjoy the warm summer evening. Harry summoned the jumpers and inserted Scorp into the green one, while Draco lowered Sev single-handedly into the blue one, holding Teddy with his other hand.

            Teddy woke up and started fussing when Sev let out a screech of delight. “He’s probably hungry. Have you feed him?” Draco asked, knowing that it’d been three hours since he fed Teddy and that was a bit long for such a young baby.

            “Um, no. He didn’t cry. Should I have?” Harry asked worried.

            “Maybe not, but never let him go more than four hours without a feed,” Draco advised, before calling Jingly for a bottle.

            Draco fed Teddy and was burping him when Narcissa and Andy came home and joined them on the patio. When Teddy burped, Draco handed the baby over to Andy. Then he wrapped Harry’s arms around him, snuggling into Harry’s side and turning his head for a quick snog.

            They all stayed out on the patio and waited for Lucius to arrive for dinner, but when Draco got hungry, he asked, “Mother, can you check the Manor for father and see what’s taking him so long? If he won’t be home anytime soon, then I think we should eat without him.”

            Narcissa agreed and apparated off to the Manor. She came back fifteen minutes later and said, “He’s fine, but he’s been searching the Manor for all the Malfoy family heirlooms and can’t find any. He said they were gone during the summer when he came home from Azkaban, but he’d just assumed they were up in the attic and they’re not there. He’s worried someone must’ve stolen them.”

            “I’ve got all the heirlooms, Mother. I have a bag with an undetectable extension charm full up with shrunken things; I didn’t leave anything of value behind.”

            “Alright, I’ll go tell him, but your father still needs to call the Aurors in to collect the Dark Lords things. He sent me back with this bag full of Bella’s things to have a look through,” Narcissa said, indicating another bag with an extension charm on it.

            “Here, I’ll put it away and you go tell him not to worry,” Draco said, taking the bag.

            Harry wondered what was in the bag, the twins were fine with Andy, and Teddy was asleep, so he followed Draco upstairs. Draco went into a room on the other side of the hallway that Harry had never been into before. It appeared to be another bedroom. “Draco, what’s in the bag? If it’s Bella’s, it’s probably dangerous,” Harry said.

            “If it’s Bella’s, my grandmother has a right to it. I’ll let my father sort through it and he’ll make the determination of whether or not it’s safe enough to give my grandmother. If not, he’ll turn it over to the Aurors; he’s calling the Aurors to come and get the Dark Lord’s things after all.”

            “What if he’s not? What if there are some of Voldemort’s things in that bag that your father wanted? There could be dangerous dark artifacts!”

            “If any of the artifacts are dark or dangerous, they will be properly stored out of little baby hands. And judging by the fact that you don’t seem to be comfortable handling them, we’ll keep them out of Savior hands too.”

            “I can’t believe you just said that!”

            “I can’t believe you’re surprised. Haven’t you known all along that my family has a history of dark magic, performing dark spells, and of having dark artifacts? Just because something is dark or dangerous, doesn’t make it uniformly bad. Some things are dangerous when used one way, but could save a life when used another.”

            “Your family still has dark artifacts then? That’s what your dad was so freaked out about, searching for in the Manor, because he thought someone had stolen them, but you’ve had them all along?”

            “I’m not going to answer that and you shouldn’t ask me it.”

            “Draco! We’re married! I’m the bloody Savior, how did you think I’d react?”

            “I thought you’d be mature enough to accept my family for who we are. If you have a problem with any artifact we show you or spell we perform in front of you, then ask. There are reasons that we have our artifacts and use our spells. If we’re doing so in front of you or the children, we’ll be happy to explain why we’re using it and how to use it safely. But what I’m not going to do is hand over our antiques to the Aurors to destroy or turn my father in for practicing dark spells. I’m also not going to show you forthright everything we have. It’s not necessary and at this point, you couldn’t understand it all.”

            “Draco! How could you even say that? I just got done killing Voldemort, the greatest dark wizard of all time, and you’re gonna let your family fall right back into the dark arts?”

            “If I remember correctly, you’ve used a dark spell or two in your day. I know you used one on me; am I to understand that it’s the only one you’ve ever used? My Aunt Bella said you hit her with a cruciatus, was she lying? Did you really make it through the entire war without casting cruciatus, imperius, or avada kedavra?”

            “I did hit you with a dark curse and I’m sorry about it. And I did try to hit your aunt with the cruciatus curse and I hit one of the Carrows with it. I even imperiused a goblin at Gringotts. But I did those things to defeat Voldemort. I never used the killing curse and I never used Sectumsempra after I saw what it did to you.”

            “See, two examples where using the cruciatus curse turned out to be positive. What if the only way to kill the Dark Lord was to cast a killing curse? Would you do it then?”

            “Yes, I would, but only then and never again.”

            “And it’d be justified and right to do so. And that is the very worst of the dark curses; the stuff my family has is mild in comparison.”

            “Well what does your family have?”

            “If I show you something, will you promise not to go blabbing to the Aurors? Swear on our wedding vows?”

            “I can’t do that; what if it’s really dangerous?”

            “It’s not. It could be put to dangerous purposes, but what we use it for isn’t dangerous and doesn’t hurt anyone.”

            “If that’s true, then I promise.”

            “Fine. Go downstairs and I’ll retrieve something to show you; I don’t want you to know where they are kept. Knowing you, you’ll go snooping around and get yourself hurt.”

            “Fine, alright, I’ll go,” Harry said and went downstairs.

            Draco hid the bag his father had sent in his father’s wardrobe, cast a locking spell on it that only a Malfoy would know, and went to his grandmother’s room. He pulled down the hatch to the attic, climbed up the stairs, found his chest, removed several protective charms and locking spells, retrieved his bag of Malfoy family artifacts and left behind his other bag of dark Malfoy family artifacts. Instead of getting something actually dark to show Harry, he got a box with a powered potion ingredient out of his potions kit and put it in his pocket. This powder wasn’t dark, but it looked just like another powder he owned that was dark and Harry wouldn’t know the difference. The dark powder would remain safely locked away in the attic.

            Draco went down to his parents’ room and placed the bag of Malfoy family artifacts on the bed for his father, before going to the stairs.

            “Harry, you can come up now!” Draco called.

            Harry was all too eagerly awaiting Draco’s call, so he was running up the steps moments later. He followed Draco into Draco’s room, where Draco sat on the bed with a small box. It was a plain cardboard box the size someone might put jewelry in. “What’s that?” Harry asked, pointing at the box.

            “This box contains a potion ingredient needed to make the potion that assures that only girls are produced. That’s what I plan on using this ingredient for and that potion is harmless, unless you’re a boy sperm; then it’s deadly.”

            “Is that all it can be used for?”

            “No. There are a great many uses this ingredient can be put too, all of them more deadly than that. For example, it could make a potion that would be fatal to _all_ male wizards, not just the single-celled variety. That potion is illegal. My potion is legal, but extremely expensive to the point where we wouldn’t be able to afford it unless I make it, in which case it’s practically free, because I have the only regulated ingredient. So Harry, you need to decide: can I keep this, or is it something too dangerous to be in the hands of a known Death Eater?” Draco asked, pulling up his shirt sleeve and casting a finite on the glamour that was always covering his mark.

            “What is that? I thought you said it faded when not called?”

            “It did fade, just not completely. It’s been like this since He died; it was quite dark and inflamed all through my pregnancy, when He kept calling me to him. I don’t like to look at it, so I use a glamour.”

            “Alright. Um, I wished you’d told me.”

            “And I wish you’d tell me right now whether or not I can be trusted with this ingredient? I could make a poison and kill the Minister of Magic….”

            “But you won’t, right?”

            “Right.”

            “Does your dad have access to this ingredient?”

            “He did when he was Lord Malfoy; now he doesn’t.”

            “Then fine, you can keep it, but I’m not saying you can keep the other things. This is the only ingredient we need for that potion and I doubt the other things all have benign uses.”

            “They do.”

            “Then tell me a few of them.”

            “There is an ingredient used in making invisibility cloaks; it helps the cloaking charm hold longer without degrading for years. Do you want to know why my family has so much more money than the Weasley family?”

            “Why?”

            “Besides not having more kids than we could afford, we make a lot of things for ourselves and sell expensive things to others. My Grandfather Abraxas had a knack for making invisibility cloaks and this ingredient is left over from that work. A great number of the instruments for making the cloaks can be put towards other more nefarious uses and would be taken away from my father if the Aurors knew he had them. But I have them now and he doesn’t have access to them; maybe someday one of our children will want to make invisibility cloaks and I’ll pass these things on.”

            “Alright, fine, you win: it seems your items aren’t all bad.”

            “Good, now go back downstairs so I can put this away; I don’t want the babies or my father having a chance to get into it.”

            “Yeah, okay, but don’t you need to make that potion?”

            “I already did, before you came; this is extra for the next time it’s needed in the Malfoy family.”

            “Great.”

            “I’ll be down in a minute,” Draco said and waited for Harry to go downstairs before calling a house elf to take the potion ingredient to the potions laboratory. All of the Malfoy family’s dark artifacts and ingredients didn’t have such legitimate uses as the examples he had told Harry about, but Harry didn’t need to know that; Harry would be happier not knowing.

            By the time Draco got to the dining room, Narcissa was already back from her second trip to the Manor.

            “I talked to your father. He was relieved to know you had everything and he’s going to stay and wait for the Aurors to go through the house. We can eat without him; I had Leeky take him a plate,” Narcissa said.

            “I left a bag of benign things from the Manor on your bed.”

            “Alright, we’ll look through it at a later date; I’m sure your father wants to make sure it’s all there.”

            They sat down to dinner and ate without Lucius that night. Draco even went to sleep before Lucius came home. Narcissa waited up for her husband and was relieved when Lucius finally returned home unaccompanied by Aurors.

            Lucius had a very long evening with Aurors. Of course the Aurors wouldn’t simply accept his good Samaritan actions of turning over the Dark Lords non-valuable possessions for what it was; they questioned him, accusing him of everything from taking items, to these being his items. But Lucius had had his lawyer with him the entire time, who acted as his witness and vouched for him that Lucius had done nothing wrong and lied for him concerning the items he took. But then what did the Aurors need with the Gaunt family candlesticks or the Slytherin family napkin rings? And why waste perfectly good heirlooms, when he had grandchildren who needed an inheritance? Severus was sure to like them, since they were snake themed.


	20. Chapter20

            Harry and Draco spent Wednesday morning together with their two boys. It was very hot, so the small family went over to the creek that ran through the rear of the property. They all stripped down to their skivvies, including the twins, and waded in the shallow water. Most of the creek was a fast moving shallow stream, but there was a small shallow pond that Draco’s ancestors had built for just such activities. The water was cold and refreshing; just a bit too cold for babies, so Harry cast a warming charm on it until it was cool, but not too cold.

            “You know, last summer I remember sitting out on the patio staring at the grape vines, knowing this was here, but also knowing I’d never be able to make it this far,” Draco said as the babies splashed in the cool water.

            “Why? You couldn’t have been that big until the very end of summer.”

            “I was sick; didn’t I tell you?”

            “Um, I think you mentioned being sick, but I thought you’d only been sick at the end.”

            “No, I started feeling tired almost immediately after leaving you. Within a month, I was sleeping eighteen hours a day and limited to the house and the patio. Within two, I was sleeping twenty hours a day and limited to my bedroom. The rest of the pregnancy I barely remember.”

            “I’m sorry, I had no idea it was so hard on you. If I had known, I wouldn’t’ve suggested you get pregnant again. I wouldn’t ask you to go through that again,” Harry said, shifting Severus into his left arm and wrapping his right arm around Draco.

            “Professor Snape said it was worse because it was twins and because you were gone. If you were with me, I could’ve drawn off your supply of magic to help support the extra baby.”

            “So it was a complication of having twins?”

            “It was so severe because of the twins; I still would’ve had some magical depletion if it were only one baby or if you’d been there. You’re more powerful than me; you’d probably be fine being pregnant.”

            “Yeah, I’ll be fine and I’ll carry the next one. Merlin, I had no idea; were there any other complications?”

            “I remember there was one when I was giving birth. Instead of just waiting for the cervix to fully dilate, Professor Snape made me start pushing as soon as possible. He said Scorpius was getting distressed and he didn’t think Scorpius would last much longer. Severus was in front, so he had to be delivered before Professor Snape could get to Scorpius. Hence I had to push.”

            “That must’ve been so scary.”

            “The really scary part was after Severus was out, when Professor Snape reached in and pulled Scorpius out and was trying to clear his airways and get him to breathe.”

            “I thought you had to push? How was he able to reach in and grab him out?”

            “I had to push for Sev, because he was so much larger and my cervix probably dilated some more while I was pushing too. By the time Sev was out, I was dilated enough for Professor Snape to reach in and pull the smaller baby out.”

            “Oh. Did Professor Snape get his airways clear?”

            “Yes, but Scorp still wouldn’t breathe. That’s when Professor Snape told mother and father to get ready to take Scorpius to the muggles. Mother grabbed a blanket and Professor Snape cut the cord and they apparated away.”

            “At least it all ended well. And there’s a chance the Ministry might pay for the hospital stay,” Harry replied.

            “What?”

            “Oh, did I forget to tell you? My back pay comes with back benefits. They said they’ll pay Professor Snape’s estate for midwife services for any care he provided you; I just need to provide them with the details. And they’re looking into seeing if the insurance covers muggle hospital visits.”

            “That’s great! I’ll get my mother and father to help me put together a list; Professor Snape did leave everything to Sev. And if the insurance doesn’t cover muggle visits, we’ll take our issue to the papers and get public opinion on our side and get the law to include muggle visits during emergencies.”

            “Between the Potter, Black, and Snape family, Sev should have a big enough inheritance, right?”

            “Prince family; the Snape’s didn’t have anything and all Professor Snape’s possessions came from his Prince relatives. But actually I was thinking we might want to save the Black things and maybe some of the Potter things for our daughter.”

            “Why? I thought we wanted our boys to be equal?”

            “Well yes, of course we do. But they’ll be equal without the Black family heirlooms, that’s for sure after what Father brought back from the Manor.”

            “Bellatrix’s things? Are any of them cursed?”

            “Well he brought back some of Bella’s things, but nothing cursed. Most of what he brought back were Gaunt, Slytherin, and Peverell family heirlooms that Lord Voldemort had. Apparently the Gaunts had squandered their wealth and lost almost everything before Voldemort was even born, but Voldemort acquired it all back. Father found a trunk of heirlooms, such as napkin rings, silverware, crystal, a statue, cufflinks… The list goes on; if it was old and from one of His relatives, He took it.”

            “Shouldn’t we give these things over to the Aurors? They can check for curses and give it back to the rightful owner.”

            “Father checked it for curses and he would argue that he is the rightful owner, being the only surviving Death Eater likely to walk. I’d argue that you have a right to those things, because you were his victim. Teddy has a right to those things too, since he was also orphaned by the Dark Lord. If we keep these things for our family, we’ll have enough heirlooms to have some for Teddy too. Don’t you want that?”

            “Yeah, I do.”

            “Then we’re in agreement?”

            “Do I have a choice?”

            “No.”

            “Then yes, okay, we can keep them.”

            “Good,” Draco said, kissing Harry. “My chest hurts.”

            “Why? What’s wrong?”

            “I need to pump,” Draco admitted.

            “Alright, why don’t you get out and sit on the edge of the pond, and I’ll hold both boys?”

            “Yeah, okay,” Draco agreed, getting out and putting the pump, but not his robes back on. He sat with his legs and feet in the water on a large slab of rock at the edge of the water, where the pond suddenly dropped off to three feet deep. The other side of the pond gently sloped in, but this side was boarded by the giant boulder.

            Harry and Draco stayed out in the cool water for a couple of hours, before putting their boys into the stroller and going back to the house. Scorpius was exhausted and fell asleep on the way, but Sev stayed awake and didn’t go down for a morning nap.

            Draco went to talk with his grandmother, so Harry went in the drawing room with Severus to see what Andy and Teddy were doing. Teddy was in a blue swing and Andy was reading through a stack of papers.

            “Oh Harry, would you be a dear and watch Teddy for me for a bit?” Andy asked when she saw Harry come in.

            “Yeah sure,” Harry replied. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

            “Thank you for watching him, Harry. No, I’m not leaving, but I need to write an owl to the probate lawyer; I need to get Dora and Remus’ wills figured out soon,” Andy said, before leaving Harry alone with the two boys.

            Harry spent the next little while playing with the boys and then orchestrating feeds and nappy changes. By the time Harry was done with nappy changes, it was lunch time and Scorpius was awake. Draco and Druella came into the nursery and each grabbed one of the twins, leaving Harry to carry Teddy down to the dining room for lunch. Teddy was placed into the cradle, Sev went into his high chair, and Draco held Scorpius on his lap, nursing him.

            Narcissa and Andy came in and joined them. Andy got an owl while they were eating and went in the other room to read it.

            When everyone was nearly done eating, Andy came back in the room and said, “Cissy, the probate attorney owled me back already; he needs to see me as soon as possible.”

            “Draco dear, what times will you be gone this afternoon?” Narcissa asked.

            “From two to four, same as yesterday. Why?” Draco asked.

            “Andy and I could go to the attorney’s office before you leave. Harry and my mother can watch Teddy while you’re gone and Sev and Scorp will be asleep, correct?”

            “Yes, and Hermione’s coming over again, in case Harry needs help,” Draco replied.

            “Perfect, then it’s settled,” Narcissa said.

            Harry didn’t like that he was being left alone with the babies again, but he had survived yesterday, he would have Hermione with him again, and two of the three babies would sleep through the majority of the time.

            “I think we should get going now. That way we might be back before Draco leaves,” Andy suggested.

            Narcissa agreed, so the two women left. Draco and Harry moved the boys into the drawing room. Teddy was down for a nap and Draco played with Scorpius on his lap, while Harry spent some time crawling around the floor with Sev. Sev still moved slowly, but he was picking up the pace and Harry figured Sev would be very mobile in the near future.

            “Draco, with Sev crawling now, shouldn’t we baby-proof the house?” Harry asked, taking a break from crawling on his hands and knees.

            “What’s baby proof?” Draco asked.

            “It’s where you put up things to make the house safer for babies, like gates at the top of the stairs, so the babies can’t crawl onto the stairs and fall down. Don’t you have things like that in the wizarding world?”

            “You mean like a gate spell that would prevent entry to babies on their own?”

            “Yeah, like that? Do you already have one up?”

            “No, we never needed it before. But if you want, there’s a book on it I could get you.”

            “Yeah, that’d be great.”

            Draco retrieved the textbook for Harry and a children’s book from the library. Draco read to his twins while Harry tried to figure out the baby proofing book, but Harry didn’t get far before Hermione arrived and Draco left for his appointment. Since Teddy was still asleep, Harry cast a monitoring charm on him and went upstairs with Hermione to put the boys down for their nap. This time Sev went right to sleep, and Scorp fussed for a while first. Harry ended up giving Scorp a soother and rocking him in the rocker before he finally went to sleep.

            Harry and Hermione went back downstairs and Harry showed Hermione the baby proofing book. Hermione, of course, was extremely interested in the book and eager to help. While they worked, Hermione told Harry about supper at the Burrow last night and about how George was planning a giant wiz-bang display to honor Fred. While they talked, they cast a baby-repulsion charm on the stairs, which would prevent the babies from getting within two feet.

            They were just moving onto the fireplace when it suddenly occurred to Harry that Hermione had stuck to telling him about the Weasleys, but had yet to mention her parents. “And what of your parents, Hermione? Did you bring them back from Australia?” Hermione turned bright red and looked down at the book she held, which was very unusual behavior for her. “You did go visit them and restore their memory, didn’t you? How’d that go?”

            “I didn’t,” Hermione admitted.

            “You didn’t what? You didn’t restore their memories? Or you didn’t go visit them?”

            “I didn’t even go. Oh Harry! What if they hate me? What if they’re so mad at me for wiping their memories and sending them to Australia! What if they never forgive me?”

            “It’ll be okay Hermione; your parents love you and I’m sure they’ll understand,” Harry said, taking Hermione into a platonic hug in front of the fireplace.

            “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” Hermione agreed, calming down.

            “Of course I’m right. Now when are you gonna go visit them? You at least need to restore their memory and ask them if they want to come back,” Harry said, releasing Hermione from the hug.

            “I guess I could go tomorrow… Ron will go with me.”

            “Yeah, Ron will definitely be there to back you up, but you know it’ll go well; your parents love you.”

            “Yeah,” Hermione agreed and started thinking about how she would do it; tell her parents first, or restore their memory first.

            They continued their talk about Hermione’s parents while they finished charming the fireplace to be cool to touch, so that it wouldn’t burn little fingers.

            Then Teddy started fussing and wailing, so Harry fed and burped him, while Hermione looked up the next safety spell; this one a confinement spell for the patio, so that the babies couldn’t wind up lost in the vineyard. They set Teddy’s swing outside on the patio and this time Harry told Hermione about some of the events that had happened at the villa since she left yesterday.

            Harry didn’t tell Hermione about Lucius bringing home Voldemort’s napkin rings, but he did tell her that Lucius had brought back some of Bellatrix’s things. Hermione was outraged that Lucius would bring anything of Bellatrix’s back, so Harry told her about Draco showing him the dangerous potion ingredient and the conversation they had had last night about dark artifacts. Hermione was appalled at first, but by the end of it, she had to admit that Draco had a point that some things had both good and bad uses and that as long as the dangerous items were locked up safely with no chance of Lucius getting into them, it was probably okay.

            They had covered all the biggest hazards, so they took a break, returning to the drawing room with Teddy, where they found Andy and Narcissa just brushing the soot off after returning from their trip to the probate attorney.

            “Hello Hermione, it’s good to see you,” Narcissa greeted.

            “Yes, and Harry, can I ask you to watch Teddy for a while longer? Cissy and I need to fill out some paperwork in the study,” Andy said.

            Harry agreed and Narcissa and Andy went into the next room, leaving Hermione and Harry once again alone with Teddy. Harry told Hermione about the conversation he had had with Draco this morning about how sick Draco had been during the pregnancy.

            “Merlin Hermione, I felt like such an arse when I realized that he was so sick for the last six months of his pregnancy and here I was asking him to go through that again, just because I was scared to try it?”

            “You didn’t know and I’m sure he forgives you. He loves you, Harry.”

            “Yeah, I know. He’s really great.”

            “So did you guys decide to stick with just the boys then?”

            “Um, no, actually I was thinking…er…it might be nice.”

            “Are you telling me you’ve changed your mind?”

            “Yeah, sorta.”

            “That’s great!” Hermione said, giving him a hug.

            “Yeah, I want a little girl to go with the three boys and I think I can do it. I mean, if Draco went through all that to give us the twins, then I can carry our daughter.”

            “Then you’ve decided on adopting Teddy? Did you talk to Andy about it?”

            “No, I haven’t.”

            “I know they said they had paperwork to do, but I’m sure it can wait. This might be the perfect time to talk to Andy, with your twins asleep and Draco gone,” Hermione prodded.

            “I don’t know; she seemed busy.”

            “She’s not too busy when it’s something concerning her grandson. I’ll watch Teddy; you go talk to her.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll go,” Harry said getting up and handing Teddy over to Hermione.

            Harry went next door to the study and knocked. “Come in,” Narcissa called.

            “Um, Andy, I was wondering if we could talk about Teddy again,” Harry said.

            “Yes, of course dear. Let’s go to the dining room and get some tea; I could use a break from this paperwork anyway,” Andy said.

            “I’ll keep working on it for now; we can finish up later,” Narcissa said.

            Harry and Andy went into the dining room and Andy asked the elves to bring them tea and biscuits. Harry wasn’t hungry, but he took a cup of tea, if for nothing else than for something to hold onto in his nervousness.

            “I’m glad you came to me, Harry; I was just thinking that we needed to have another talk, what with everything I just learned at the lawyer’s office.”

            “Oh, what is it?”

            “Well there’s all kinds of legal matters that have to be settled after a death.  There’s bodies to claim and funerals to plan and then there’s planning for little Teddy’s future. I thought that we’d be alright with Dora’s life insurance policy. She died on the job as an Auror, so Teddy will get payouts every month. But the lawyer just informed me of all these bills that have to be covered as well. The biggest problem is that Remus and Dora just bought a house last year when they got married. It’s a big step buying your first house and I was happy for them, but given what has happened, they really should’ve just moved in with me and Ted.”

            “Um, what’s wrong with their house? Can’t you just sell it?”

            “Oh, we are going to have to sell it, that’s for sure, but it won’t fetch nearly as much as it cost.”

            “Why?”

            “Because Dora and Remus were attacked by Death Eaters several times in that house. The Death Eaters set fire to the place, so they were staying with me the last few months anyway. They were hoping to get it repaired after the war, but the lawyer just told me that the home owners insurance won’t pay, because they were late making a payment. I can’t fix the house and I can’t afford to keep it, so I’ve agreed to sell it for less than half what they paid. But then there’s the mortgage to consider and the bank will want their money back, which they’ll take from Dora’s life insurance policy. Between that and all the expenses of another funeral and three burials… My house was paid off, but I had to take out a small mortgage on it to pay for repairs from my own Death Eater attacks and with Ted gone and me retired, I’m on a limited income. I was really counting on having that life insurance money to raise Teddy. As it is, I can’t afford to support him.”

            “Oh. I want to help.”

            “Of course you and Draco can help. I saw the way Draco was with him yesterday and it got me thinking that Teddy really does fit right in with your family. Your boys aren’t much older and I can just imagine them running through the halls when their older. I was thinking that the only way I can make things work, is to sell my home and get a smaller place. But I don’t want Teddy cooped up in a small apartment, not when you and Draco are willing to take him in and you’ll have the Manor for him to roam. It’s just not fair to Teddy to keep him with me, so I want him to live with you and Draco.”

            “Yeah, he can live with us; it’ll be great. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about: Draco said he wanted us to sort out who Teddy was gonna live with most of the time. He’ll be happy to know we made a decision.”

            “Wonderful. Oh this really is such a relief off my chest to know that Teddy will be cared for.

            “You know Andy, you’ll be welcome over at our house all the time.”

            “You really are a remarkable young man, give me a hug, dear,” Andy said, hugging Harry.

            “Thank you, ma’am,” Harry said, hugging Andy back.

            “Now I really do need to get back to those forms. The lawyer said he would contact a realtor to put both houses on the market, but I’ve got to fill out the forms to claim Dora and Remus’ bodies from Hogwarts; they can’t stay there under stasis charms forever.”

            Harry hadn’t thought about it, but it made sense that the bodies were all still at the school where they had fallen. He let Andy get back to her paperwork and he went back into the drawing room with Hermione to tell her the good news. Draco was already there, back from his interview at the Quibbler, which meant he could tell them both at the same time.

            “How did your talk with Andy go?” Hermione asked.

            “Good. Well she’s having some money problems and that’s not good, but we agreed that Teddy would live with me and Draco,” Harry said.

            “Did you talk to her about adopting him?” Draco asked.

            “Um no, but I will,” Harry said and Draco gave him a pointed look. “It wasn’t a good time. She just found out that her financial situation is so bad that she has to sell her house and move into an apartment and I didn’t want to add to her load that she has to deal with right now. Give her a few more days to sort out paperwork and make her arrangements and then I’ll ask her.”

            “You can bring me home an orphan, Harry, but don’t you dare bring me home half of an orphan. He can live with us, but only if we’re adopting him; you should’ve been upfront with my aunt and told her that,” Draco said and Hermione giggled.

            “Alright, I will, I promise. We’ll get it worked out before she leaves,” Harry promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that Andy has decided to sell her house, it won’t be long before Narcissa offers her the use of the guesthouse. It will need quite a lot of repairs, but it’s big enough for Andy and Teddy to both stay in. And it’s close enough to the Manor that Teddy can be over playing all the time, even if Harry and Draco don’t end up adopting him. Do you think they should adopt him, or just be there for him, while Andy raises him? Either way, the guesthouse is close enough that Andy and Teddy can be at the Manor all of the time.


	21. Chapter21

            Thursday was a day of funeral preparations. Andy was planning Remus and Tonks’ funerals, Druella was planning Bellatrix’s funeral, and Narcissa was planning Severus’ funeral. All four bodies were still waiting at Hogwarts under stasis charms, but they had finished their formal requests for those bodies yesterday and submitted them Thursday morning; they had every reason to believe the requests would be granted. Teddy was next of kin to Remus and Tonks and Druella and Narcissa were next of kin to Bellatrix, since Rodolphus was back in Azkaban. As for Severus, he had named Draco as his next of kin on record.

            Andy was planning a duel funeral for Remus and Tonks, because Remus had almost no one left alive to mourn him. There were Harry, Ron, Hermione, and maybe some of the other kids he had taught at Hogwarts would come… Maybe a few of the surviving members of the Order, like Mrs. and Mr. Weasley, would come… But Teddy was too young and there were just so _many_ funerals that were being planned that most people wouldn’t come just to pay their respects to a dead unsung werewolf.

            In Tonks’ case, there were a number of people who would come, because she was an Auror. All of the surviving Aurors would come, along with her higher ups at the Ministry. Maybe a few of the people she’d helped during her short career, including one or two she had flat out saved; unless of course those people were recently deceased themselves. Tonks even had a few friends from her Hogwarts days who weren’t deceased. And then the Malfoy family would come and Narcissa was going to send invites to her more distant Black relatives, who might come.

            But even with combining Remus’ funeral with Tonks’, they were still not expecting a huge turnout; just a small intimate gathering.

            Severus’ funeral, on the other hand, had the potential to be explosive when it came to attendance. He had very few friends in his life, and his only close friend had been Harry’s mother. But there were a very great number of people whose lives he had touched through his work as potion’s master at Hogwarts, his one year as defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts, and his year of being Headmaster at Hogwarts. Technically, Severus was still Headmaster when he was killed, and therefore every student, teacher, and school official just might show up.

            Then there was Severus’ role in the war. Whether as a Death Eater or as an Order member, he was important, influential, and was always one of the top players. Disgruntled purebloods would come for his role as a Death Eater. Everyone else would come for his role as an Order member, as a spy, and as the man who saved Harry’s life, who lied to Voldemort up to the very end, whose lie convinced Voldemort to walk into the battle with a wand that was loyal to Harry.

            Every article in every newspaper right now was on the war. Not many of them were from people who knew the full story of Severus’ involvement, but almost all of them mentioned him. From interviews with captured Death Eaters, like Rodolphus Lestrange, who was insisting that Severus Snape was a loyal Death Eater right up to the end, to the interview from Minerva McGonagall, where she talked about Severus’ role in the Order and protecting the children of Hogwarts after Dumbledore’s death; they all mentioned Severus.

            Hermione and Ron had both given interviews that revealed the truth about Severus, but it was Draco’s interviews that were the most revealing. It was Draco who gave glimpses of the behind the scenes picture of what Severus Snape had really been like. In fact, Draco had even given reporters pictures of Severus Snape holding Severus Malfoy to run with yesterday’s headline article, which just so happened to be on the enigma that was Severus Snape. The picture showed Professor Snape happily playing with a baby who had Harry’s green eyes and messy hair and was accompanied by a story covering the facts Draco had disclosed in his interview with Witch Weekly Tuesday.

            With this article, attention was shifting away from solely Harry, to Harry and Severus Snape. Draco and the Malfoy family were pushing for Professor Snape to posthumously be awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class, and as part of that plan, they were going to keep the late hero in the spotlight until the medal was awarded. Draco had been careful not to give away too much information so far; just enough to convince everyone that Snape was a hero, but not all of the details of all of Snape’s works of heroism. He revealed that his oldest son was named after Snape and that they had a close relationship, but he was saving the revelations about how the professor had saved their lives so many times and the details on their personal relationship for future articles. He also had a pile of photos to give out for said future articles.

            And so if the Malfoy media campaign was successful, there would be a great many people coming to pay their respects to the fallen hero of the war. And then once the public figured out that Harry, Draco, and their children would be at Severus Snape’s funeral… well then everybody would surely be there. As such, one of the most challenging issues with Severus’ funeral was finding a location big enough to hold it.

             As for Bellatrix, Narcissa wouldn’t have bothered planning a funeral for her sister at all, if not for her mother. Druella grieved for Bella, even if no one else did and Narcissa was at least willing to put together a small gathering to say goodbye to her oldest sister, even if there were only a few people who would come and almost all of them were currently under her roof. Well that was what Narcissa had been planning, but then Druella took over the funeral planning and recruited Draco to help her.

            It wasn’t that Draco was particularly interested in mourning for his vile aunt, but he did love his grandmother and he was a fan of getting one over on the Ministry, the stupid gits. Plus he wasn’t being asked to do much of the actual work; basically his grandmother just needed his help putting out the announcement of the funeral to the people who would be willing to come. The only people who would mourn Bellatrix were Death Eaters and pureblood Death Eater supports, all of which were in hiding and trying to stay under the radar at the moment, which is where Draco came in.

            Draco took a letter from his grandmother announcing the funeral to the Quibbler to print. Of course he couldn’t be sure the they would print it, but it was the only exclusive he gave the magazine and if they didn’t print it, he’d send it off to the Prophet or Witch Weekly or some other news outlet. As it was, the Quibbler was printing the letter and his interview; they sent him an advanced copy Thursday morning at breakfast. He tucked the article away from Harry’s eyes, because what Harry didn’t know wouldn’t hurt.

            Lucius was once again away for the day, this time working to repair damages sustained to the Manor and wipe all traces of the Dark Lord, Death Eaters, and Nagini from the premises.

            While the women were busy with their funeral arrangements and Lucius was busy at the Manor, Harry and Draco were left at home to watch the three babies. Harry was just getting used to the flow of a life revolving around childcare when an owl arrived for him from Luna.

            “Harry, I thought you might want to read the interview your husband gave my father; it’s quite interesting. Hope all is well- Luna.”

            The note was short, but the next several pages were clearly from Draco’s interview with the Quibbler. She hadn’t sent him the entire magazine, just the transcript from the interview and the materials Draco had provided for publication. Harry started reading and knew instantly that he needed to be alone to read this. “Um Draco, is it alright if I just go up to the bedroom to read this letter from Luna?”

            “Yeah, I’ve got this handled.”

            So Harry left Draco in the drawing room with the three children and went up to Draco’s bedroom to read. The article was titled Funeral Fit for a Death Eater. Under the heading was an open invitation to Bellatrix’s funeral to be held the Friday after tomorrow at an undisclosed location. All Death Eaters were invited to take a break from being on the run to come and mourn one of their own. All Death Eater supporters were also invited to come. The location was not announced and instead it said to contact Druella Black for details of the location. It advised that all attendees would be required to take a valid nondisclosure oath, a vow not to harm or turn in any of the fugitives present, a tongue-tying curse, and would not be able to lead Aurors to the funeral. It even said that Aurors were not welcome and could stick their filthy mudblood noses elsewhere.

            Under the invitation to the funeral was Draco’s interview with Xenophilus Lovegood, Luna’s father. Harry was very interested to know why Draco had given Mr. Lovegood the invitation and also why Draco had kept it from him. Surely his husband would tell him if Druella was planning a Death Eater rendezvous; it was the perfect time to call in the Aurors and take all the Death Eaters in! It would make the perfect trap and then they and their children would be forever safe from Death Eaters; surely Draco would want that, right? And so Harry read the transcript of Draco’s interview that followed the invitation.

 

            XL: Lord Malfoy, can you explain to me and my readers what this invitation is for?

            DM: Yes Mr. Lovegood; it is an open invitation to my Aunt Bella’s funeral. It was given to me by my Grandmother Druella Black, who asked me to ask you to publish it.

            XL: Were you very fond of your aunt? Will you miss her greatly?

            DM: Oh not at all. My aunt was the type of horrible person that only a mother could love.

            XL: Then why do you bring me this invitation?

            DM: Because my grandmother asked me too. She loved my Aunt Bella and wants to pay her daughter the proper respects. I love my grandmother, so I’m willing to do this favor for her.

            XL: Did Bella have a good relationship with her mother then? Were they close?

            DM: They were, before Aunt Bella went to Azkaban. After my aunt was released, she was a bit touched in the head.

            XL: How so?

            DM: Tortured me until I learned occlumency and scared my grandmother by cackling into her tea; she did that sort of stuff.

            XL: Now when you say released, you are referring to your aunt’s escape from Azkaban, correct?

            DM: No, my aunt and all of the other Death Eaters who left Azkaban, including my father, were released. They did not escape. The dementors opened up the cells in the presence of Aurors and Ministry officials and let the Death Eaters walk out. In the case of my aunt, the Ministry officials damaged the prison themselves to cover the fact that they had released the prisoners against official orders. The Death Eaters were taken to the Dark Lord, reunited with their lost wands, and put to work torturing the rest of us.

            XL: Who set them free? Which Aurors, which Ministry officials? How high up the chain does this scandal go?

            DM: You will have to ask the Aurors for the names from their investigation. My father has been ordered not to release the names until the people in question can be properly investigated. But I can tell you that it goes all the way to the top. Pius Thicknesse was nothing more than a puppet for the Dark Lord. When Thicknesse took power, he granted full pardons to every Death Eater the Dark Lord wanted back. Every Death Eater who left Azkaban was pardoned for their crimes.

            XL: Are you saying that escaped Death Eaters cannot be re-imprisoned when caught?

            DM: My father won’t be: he was pardoned for every crime he committed and didn’t commit any further crimes once released. As for the others, I don’t know. My Aunt Bella certainly committed plenty of crimes upon her release and I imagine that the same is true for the vast majority of the others.

            XL: Why did your father leave He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s service?

            DM: Simple; I asked him too. The Dark Lord thought my father was loyal to Him, but my father was really loyal to his family.

            XL: Why did you switch sides?

            DM: By the time I wrote to my father, I had already married Harry and was pregnant with the twins.

            XL: The twins; I’d like to talk about them for a moment. There was some speculation in the papers that you were pregnant before you married Harry. You married last June and the twins were born in December, just six months later, correct?

            DM: Correct, but the twins were born prematurely. Severus was tiny and Scorpius was too little to survive on his own. If it hadn’t been for the muggle-hospital who saved him, I’d only have one son.

            XL: It was a good thing the muggles were there, then.

            DM: Yes, it was.

            XL: Tell me, Lord Malfoy, with this funeral, are you not concerned about the Ministry? They could come after you for aiding and abetting fugitives with regards to your aunt’s funeral.

            DM: No. Do you really think they are going to arrest the husband of the Savior of the Wizarding World and get away with it? I was instrumental in this war and if the Ministry wants to thank me by arresting me for helping my elderly grandmother throw a funeral for my aunt, well then they’ve got another thing coming.

            XL: If you commit a crime, won’t you be arrested, regardless of who you married?

            DM: Who says I’ll be committing a crime? Since when is having a funeral a crime?

            XL: Inviting fugitive Death Eaters and then letting them escape at the end is aiding and abetting fugitives.

            DM: In this country maybe; the funeral will be held in a different jurisdiction where Death Eaters are looked upon far more favorably.

            XL: So not in Great Britain then?

            DM: Certainly not.

            XL: What about your father? I hear he’s been to the Ministry lately for questioning. Are you saying that they won’t put pressure on him to disclose the details surrounding this funeral? Surely they’ll come up with something to charge him with if he doesn’t cooperate.

            DM: My father isn’t involved in the funeral. He doesn’t know where it will be or who is coming. He won’t be coming himself; someone has to stay home with Harry and the kids.

            XL: So your husband, Harry Malfoy, isn’t invited either?

            DM: No, he certainly isn’t welcome among the crowd that we’re expecting and he’s not the type that will be able to live with himself for letting Death Eaters go free afterwards.

            XL: What about you? Aren’t you and your children still in danger from Death Eaters? Wouldn’t you want to protect your family by turning the fugitives in?

            DM: We may be, but my children won’t be at this funeral and everyone who is at the funeral will be magically bound to do no harm to anyone else there. I hold no ill will to other Death Eaters who wish to pretend they were never on the other side. With the number of pureblood families involved, our society will be devastated if all the Death Eaters are rounded up. The crazy ones who won’t stop, like my aunt, I’m happy to see them dead or in prison. But the misguided ones like my family, I won’t snitch on and I’d be pleased to see them rehabilitated and fit back into society.

            XL: So then it all goes back the way it was after the last war? There are no changes?

            DM: No, there will have to be changes. Muggleborns can’t be killed, hurt, or imprisoned as the Dark Lord suggested, and neither should we purebloods continue to shun them. Just because we don’t want to marry someone, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t accept them. Many muggleborns are talented witches and wizards and useful members of society.

            XL: What does that mean for pureblood ideals?

            DM: I think pureblood ideals are in for a change back to the way they were before the Dark Lord. My family is reinstating my Aunt Andromeda into our family. She married a muggleborn and was kicked out of the family, but we’re filing paperwork to take her back in. Families shouldn’t disown their children for falling in love with someone of impure blood.

            XL: Then you’re encouraging purebloods to marry muggleborns?

            DM: If they choose, then yes. In the old days, before the Dark Lord, we used to pick and choose amongst the muggleborns and halfbloods which ones we wanted to let into our pureblood society. If someone if magically gifted, shouldn’t we take him in? Should we claim Harry Malfoy, the Savior of the Wizarding World, the Boy-Who-Lived, as a pureblood? I say the answer to that question is yes and I am reaping the benefits of that decision.

            XL: And just what are the benefits?

            DM: Both of my sons have already proven themselves to be very magical. Severus is a parselmouth and Scorpius is a sensitive. My Aunt Andromeda, who was disowned, went on to produce a daughter who was a metamorphmagus, a talent that was passed on to her son, Teddy Lupin. Now we have a metamorphmagus in the family too. Instead of letting the family die out with a bunch of inbred squibs like so many pureblood families, we need to intermarry with the most powerful and magically gifted witches and wizards in existence and claim them as our own.

 

            The interview ended there and Harry read it over a second time, before putting it down to think. Draco had made a lot of really good points and he made them in a way that would appeal to purebloods. Harry still cringed when he heard some of Draco’s pureblood supremacy talk, but if letting Draco talk that way helped get across his message of acceptance of muggleborns and halfbloods, then in the end, it was for the best, right? Harry thought so anyway.

            What really bothered Harry was Bellatrix’s funeral; it was the perfect trap for Death Eaters and he couldn’t believe that Draco and Druella were seriously gonna stop him from showing up and taking all the Death Eaters in! No, he was getting into that funeral and he couldn’t believe Draco had kept something like this from him. He marched back down the stairs to confront his husband.

            “Draco, we need to talk,” Harry said, coming into the drawing room to find that somehow Draco had figured out a way to feed all three babies at one time without elves.

            Draco was sitting on the floor, with his back against the sofa, nursing Scorpius, without holding onto him, but there was no danger of Scorpius falling, because Draco was already on the floor. He had his knees up and Teddy cradled in between them, while he fed Teddy with his left hand. His right hand was holding a bottle out to Sev, who was sitting at Draco’s side and facing him, eagerly sucking on the rubber nipple and helping Draco support the bottle with his two little hands. “Sure, just grab Teddy and take his bottle, will you?”

            Harry didn’t want to do this with the children present, but he also didn’t want to interrupt the women in the funeral arrangements. He resolved not to raise his voice and remain calm, while rationally explaining to Draco the error of his ways. He sat down and took Teddy and the bottle as requested. “Luna sent me a copy of the transcript from your interview with the Quibbler along with the invitation to Bellatrix’s funeral,” Harry said.

            “And?”

            “And I want to go.”

            “So you can be the hero and arrest them all?”

            “Yes.”

            “No.”

            “What? You can’t keep me out; you have to let me in. Those people are dangerous.”

            “Have you considered that after the fact, your husband just might pass information along to you or your little Auror friends, if you play nice?”

            “What? So this _is_ a trap?”

            “It won’t be a universal all inclusive trap. You won’t be allowed to come and no one will be arrested from the funeral, but I will give you a list of the dangerous Death Eaters who are still alive, if I believe they aren’t rehabilitating themselves.”

            “So if someone like your dad shows up and says that they’re gonna pretend like they never were Death Eaters, then you’re gonna let them get away with it?”

            “It would be hypocritical of me not to.”

            “Draco!” Harry exclaimed a little too loudly.

            Scorpius let go of Draco’s nipple and let out a wail. He took in a jagged breath and then screamed at the top of his lungs.

            “Out until you calm down; take Teddy with you,” Draco ordered, putting Sev’s bottle down and wrapping his arms around Scorpius, bouncing the baby up and down.

            Harry left with Teddy and went out onto the patio.

            Narcissa rushed to Draco’s side just as a house elf delivered Draco a green soother for Scorpius. Sev was wailing, joining his brother in his distress, if not as loudly or as fervently. Narcissa picked Sev up and rocked him, offering him his bottle back. It took thirty seconds, but Sev calmed down. Scorpius was still sobbing into his soother, but his wails were quieter now.

            Andy was with Narcissa up until she saw Harry fleeing the scene with her grandson. She figured he could use someone to talk to and potentially some help with Teddy.

            “What happened?” Andy asked.

            “Um, I was talking to Draco and I got upset. Scorpius freaked,” Harry admitted, handing Teddy over to Andy.

            “What made you upset?”

            “Are you aware of your mother’s plans for Bellatrix’s funeral?”

            “I know she took the plans over from Cissy and kicked both of us out of the arrangements.”

            “She sent Draco with an invitation to publish in the Quibbler, did you know that?”

            “No, who’s the barmy old lady trying to invite?”

            “Death Eaters.”

            “Oh my! Perhaps I should go talk to my nephew. Here, you take Teddy for me,” Andy said getting up and handing Teddy back to Harry.

            Harry fed and burped Teddy and then noticed that Teddy’s nappy was wet, so he went upstairs to change it. Then he sat with Teddy in the rocker, trying to distract himself with his godson while he waited.

            After half an hour, Andy came back in and conjured a chair to sit next to Harry. “I talked to my sister and her son,” Andy said.

            “And?”

            “And he seems to have more going on than just letting Death Eaters into the funeral without repercussions. What did Draco say to you?” she asked.

            “Well he said in the interview that it wasn’t a trap, but when I asked him, he said it was a trap in a way. He said he’d give me a list of the dangerous Death Eaters who showed, but anyone who was like his father and ready to turn over a new leaf and deny their previous crimes and what not… he said he’d let them go.”

            “I imagine that a lot of his remaining friends and family fall into one of those two categories.”

            “Argg! This is so frustrating! People like Lucius should be arrested! Okay, Lucius turned around a year before the war and helped us a lot, but everyone who was loyal to Voldemort up until the end, they should be in Azkaban! Even if they’re Draco’s cousin or one of his gang of Slytherins, if they committed a crime, they should be punished.”

            “If Lucius had been punished the first time, he wouldn’t have been in a place to help this time. He’d be crazy like my late-sister.”

            “Yeah, okay, Lucius is an exception, but everyone else? I can’t just turn my back and let them go!”

            “Harry, do you trust Draco?”

            “Yes, I do, but….”

            “Who do you imagine Draco will let go?”

            “Death Eaters; members of Voldemort’s inner circle who should pay for what they’ve done.”

            “Haven’t you already given testimony about the members of Voldemort’s inner circle? Either they were in Azkaban with Bella or they were in that graveyard. Those people, the really awful ones; they’re all dead, imprisoned, or of the type whose name Draco will be turning over to you, correct?”

            “Probably.”

            “Definitely. Draco is a good wizard. He may be manipulative and conniving, but those who were really to blame for this war will be punished. The ones I imagine he’ll let go are the kids fresh out of Hogwarts, some of them still in Hogwarts, who got caught up in the pureblood mania taught to them by their parents. They never had a chance to think for themselves. I think he will give them that chance and then if he later comes to realize that someone he let go hasn’t turned over a new leaf, I think he’ll let you know. Do you think you could trust him to do that?”

            “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

            “I know I’m right, because I know how purebloods think. I was raised by one.” Andy laughed and Harry joined in with a chuckle. “So how about you let this funeral go on and give Draco the chance to prove himself. With a marriage, you have to have enough trust in your spouse to let them do what they want sometimes. If he fails, then you can have a fight, but wait until he fails to start something, okay?”

            “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

            “Good. Scorpius has calmed down; let’s see if he’s forgiven you,” Andy said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Harry and Draco will have a date alone.  
> Majority rules, so they will be adopting Teddy :)  
> Please Review!


	22. Chapter22

            By Thursday night, Harry and Draco really needed some time to themselves. They had had so many disagreements in their marriage and no time alone to kiss and make up, so Draco decided that it was time. He asked his mother to watch the twins and told Harry to find a place for them to spend the night. He was still uncomfortable with the thought of having sex in the same house with all of his family; hence his desire for a night away.

            Harry was ecstatic when Draco told him. This was what he had been waiting for since coming home from the war. It had been a year since they were married and a year since they had had sex for the first time. He was ready to do it again and to make a baby again. He even had the perfect place to do it: Grimmauld Place; he just had to set it up. He apparated over straight away after dinner.

            Grimmauld Place was mostly how they left it after escaping from the Ministry with Slytherin’s locket, except with more dust, which meant that it was a mess. They hadn’t planned on leaving for good when they went to the Ministry, so they hadn’t bothered putting things away. There was an open bottle of ink that was tipped over in the drawing room. There were books strewn all over the place in Hermione’s room. There was a half-eaten cheese sandwich on Ron’s bed, without so much as a plate underneath it. Harry’s bed was unmade, there was a used pair of his pants on top of the dresser, and a set of dirty clothes on the floor.

            Oh, and Harry was greeted by Moody’s ghost of Dumbledore when he walked in the door, which he couldn’t bypass by apparating straight into his bedroom, because of one of the special safety charms on the place. He called Kreacher and set the elf to work cleaning the rest of the house, while he concentrated on his bedroom. Once he vanished the dust, cleaned the sheets, made the bed, and picked up his clothes, he was left with a plain unromantic room. That was a problem, because Draco liked to be romanced and his advances always went farther with a little bit of romantic effort. But this wasn’t the room of requirement and he couldn’t just go outside and pick Draco a bunch of lilacs or wish the room to provide him with something.

            Harry went out to the back garden to see if there were any flowers he could use and found that the garden was once again overgrown with weeds now that Narcissa hadn’t been around to get Kreacher to work. There were a few daisies and pitiful looking roses, but nothing he could use for a bouquet. He thought about conjuring a bouquet out of thin air and then he thought Hermione could probably do it better.

            That got Harry thinking that Hermione would probably be able to help him straighten this place out and get it into a presentable condition. But Hermione was supposed to be in Australia reuniting with her parents and she said she’d take Ron with her… But Ginny would still be at the Burrow and Ginny was a girl, who had more romantic insight in one little finger than he had in his entire body. And so he apparated and knocked on the front door of the Burrow.

            “Harry, dear! You just missed supper, but come in and I’ll fix you a plate with the leftovers. It’s such a treat to see you,” Molly greeted.

            “Oh no, Mrs. Weasley, I already ate. I was just wondering if Ginny was here. I was hoping to get her help, since Hermione and Ron are gone. Hermione and Ron did go to Australia today, didn’t they?” Harry asked.

            “Yes dear, they left this morning to see her parents. I told them to stay a few days. Ginny’s upstairs. Is it something I could help with too? I was just trying to pick out the perfect song for Fred’s funeral, but it’d be nice to have a bit of a distraction.” While she talked, Molly led Harry into the house towards the staircase. Then when she was at the foot of the stairs, she called, “Ginny! Harry’s here to see you!”

            “Um maybe,” Harry said as he heard several doors open upstairs and the sound of hurried footsteps.

            “Harry? Is it really you?” Ginny called, looking over the banister, before saying, “Luna, George, it’s Harry!” and running downstairs.

            “Harry?” George asked, following after his sister. “I didn’t know you were stopping by today!”

            “The gulping plimpies have negative effects on house elves. One really shouldn’t let their elves eat plimpy soup,” Luna said, following after George, while Ginny hugged Harry.

            “It’s good to see you too, Gin,” Harry said.

            Ginny let Harry go and George took her place, followed up with a hug from Luna.

            “So what are you here for? Ronnikins is off to Australia today,” George said.

            Harry explained the situation and that he needed Ginny’s help setting Grimmauld Place up for his date.

            “Of course we’ll help Harry!” Ginny exclaimed.

            “And you’re nervous, dear. It’s perfectly fine to be nervous about your first date with your husband in a year. George, get Arthur and Charlie and let’s all go over and help clean the place up!” Molly proclaimed.

            “Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley. I don’t know how to make the place romantic; there aren’t even any decent flowers in the garden.

            “We’ve got flowers in our garden. Come on Harry, I’ll show you,” Ginny said.

            “Oh I just love green tididilly roses; they sing when the nargles are around,” Luna said.

            Harry, Ginny, and Luna went out to the garden and picked several stems of white peonies and some yellow buttercups, which was all that was flowering in the Weasley’s garden at the moment. Luna kept insisting that there were bound to be tididilly roses in bloom somewhere nearby, but there weren’t and there was no indication that it was even a real plant. Harry nixed the plan to keep looking for the imaginary flower and they went back inside, where Molly was just gathering a basket full of supplies and Arthur and Charlie had returned with George.

            The bunch of them apparated over to Grimmauld Place and waited for the ghost of Albus to disappear.

            “Alright, George, Charlie, Arthur, you three are on general repairs of the place. Arthur, see if you can remove Albus’ ghost. Ginny, Luna, Harry, you three are with me on the bedroom; lead the way Harry,” Molly ordered.

            And so Harry led the women up to the bedroom. Harry set to work on the flower arrangements, transfiguring an old bottle of soda into a crystal vase with a dragon and a lion etched into the crystal. He trimmed the excess leaves away, before arranging the flowers into a pleasant configuration. Molly covered the dresser with a nice piece of cloth and added fresh scented candles. Luna ridded the place of wackspurts and Ginny cleaned up the bathroom.

            “Harry dear, what are you planning on wearing?” Molly asked.

            “Erm, I haven’t really thought about it, but I know he likes muggle jeans,” Harry replied.

            “Alright and your hair? You should groom it. Is it alright if I do it for you quick as a button?”

            “Yeah, go for it.”

            Molly cast a grooming charm on Harry’s hair, but it came out wonky, because the poor dear really needed a haircut. She trimmed his hair with a spell and recast the grooming charm. “There, right as rain,” she said.

            “Thanks, Mrs. Weasley!” Harry said, looking in the mirror. It really did look loads better.

            “Now for a snack. What does he like? Chocolates? Biscuits? Strawberries?” Molly asked.

            “Um, I know he likes fruit. He has a sweet tooth too; ice cream and cheesecake and pie, mostly.”

            “Good. You stay here and see about setting the place up. Perhaps some lotion for a back massage? And I’ll run by the store and pick up something along those lines.”

            “Thanks, Mrs. Weasley,” Harry replied, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a galleon. He handed the money over to Molly and then went back to his flowers.

            When the flowers were done, Harry set them on the nightstand. Then he looked in the closet and found a bottle of lotion, which he set on the other nightstand, before turning to Luna to see what she was doing. Luna had her wand to the ceiling and was moving as if she were writing with a quill. “What are you doing, Luna?”

            “I’m arranging the nargles to spell out, ‘I love you.’ They glow in the dark, you know, Harry.”

            “Oh, yes, of course,” Harry replied. “I’ll just go check on Ginny.”

            Harry went down the hall to the bathroom, where Ginny had vanished the dust and scourgified the fixtures. She was just setting out the proper soap and shoving all the extra products under the sink. “Is there anything I could help with?” Harry asked.

            “How about the music? You could set up a wireless and play your song,” Ginny suggested.

            “Yeah, that’d be great! I’ll go get it,” Harry said, before taking off down the hall.

            Harry retrieved the wireless and set it up in his room, before spelling it to play the song they had danced to on the night he had proposed. And then everything was perfect in the room, so he went to check out the rest of the house, which he found to be in reasonable shape. Arthur had even managed to remove Moody’s ghost of Albus.

            Molly soon came back with a basket of strawberries and a tub of ice cream. Molly cut off the steams and Harry helped her arrange them on a platter, while Luna scooped out bowls of ice cream and put them under a stasis charm, so that they wouldn’t melt. They put it all on a tray and left it on the kitchen table for Kreacher to deliver.

            And then the entire house was about as good as it was going to get and it was getting late. The Weasleys apparated back to the Burrow and Harry apparated back to the villa, where Draco was feeding Scorpius one last time before putting the little guy to bed. Harry helped out, changing Sev’s nappy and then changing Sev into pajamas, since the baby had already finished his bottle. Draco finished up feeding Scorp and then it was just a quick nappy change and a pair of pajamas, before the twins were being tucked into their cribs.

            Harry went to Draco’s closet to find something to wear. He quickly realized that none of his hand-me-down muggle jeans from Dudley were nice enough. If Lucius succeeded in making a deal to import muggle jeans, Harry would have to be one of the first in line to get a pair. As it was, he grabbed a pair of trousers and added a white t-shirt.

            Draco let his mother know they were going and then they flooed over to Grimmauld Place.

            “You know, I really need to get my apparition license already,” Draco grumbled, vanishing the soot from his robes as he stepped out of the fireplace.

            “Yeah, maybe we could go down to the Ministry tomorrow,” Harry agreed.

            “But my mother, father, and aunt are all going to be too busy to watch the babies.”

            “Then next week, when Hermione’s back from Australia. I’ll ask her to come over and help me with the babies and you can go, as long as you’re back before naptime is over.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, really. Now come on, off to bed with you,” Harry said, leading Draco away from the fireplace and up the stairs.

            A huge smile lit up Draco’s face when he entered the room and saw how much work Harry had put into it. It looked and smelled beautiful. Their song was even playing.

            Harry asked, “May I have this dance?”

            “Yes,” Draco agreed and took Harry’s hand, before leading him around the small space of the room.

            When the song ended, the wireless began to play a mix of current wizarding rock favorites and Harry initiated a kiss, which was deepened to an all out snog. When Draco’s head was spinning from oxygen deprivation, Harry broke away gasping for air. Draco sucked in quick deep breaths and Harry pushed Draco down onto the bed. Harry stripped, before crawling over Draco on the bed and resuming the snogging session.

            Harry was just taking off Draco’s robes, when Draco stopped Harry and said, “Wait.” Harry paused and Draco pulled out a corked potion vial, which he handed over to Harry. “You said you wanted to get pregnant tonight; this will make it a girl.”

            “Brilliant,” Harry replied, unstoppering the vial, before drinking its contents and throwing the vial towards the bin.

            Then Draco pulled out two filled applicators, one with the conditioning potion and the other with the soothing potion. Harry took them and set them on the nightstand for later. Draco finally let Harry pull his robes off and Draco removed the breast pump, getting up to set it in the corner of the room. Draco pushed his pants off and threw them onto the floor with his robes, before climbing back into bed.

            Harry climbed on top of Draco’s back, squirted lotion onto his hands, and then rubbed the lotion into Draco’s back. He rubbed and kneaded tight muscles until Draco was relaxed and moaning. Then he placed a kiss at the top of Draco’s spine, peppering kisses every few inches as he traveled down Draco’s body. When he reached Draco’s arse, he rose up off of Draco just long enough for his husband to turn over, before straddling Draco once more and casting his preparatory spells.

            Harry reached behind him, to his anus and inserted a finger, opening up his hole. Draco’s hands went to his hips first and one hand reached around to join Harry’s. One of Draco’s fingers slipped in with Harry’s finger, followed by a second finger from Draco. He was being stretched by three fingers thrusting in and out of his tight hole.

            And then Draco added another two fingers, stretching Harry wide open until Draco’s knuckles slipped passed his tight sphincter, pushing in deeper. Harry felt so full that he needed both hands to brace himself, so he removed the one finger he had in his arse. He was on his hands and knees, straddling Draco as Draco slipped the thumb inside his arse, fisting him. It felt so full and deep.

            Draco pulled his fist out of Harry’s arse. His dick was hard and throbbing and his head was spinning as Harry pulled up his dick and rose up on Harry’s knees. Draco reached down and grabbed his dick, helping Harry hold it steady as Harry lowered himself onto it. And then his head was slowly engulfed in ecstasy. His pulse was racing and his breathing was rough and ragged, as sparks of magic shot up his dick and directly to his ballocks. It was still there, some of the magic, even though he was no longer pregnant. It wasn’t there before, when they weren’t being intimate, but now there was a bit of it there.

            It burned at first, taking something that big after so long without it, and Harry had to stop for a minute and take in several deep, gasping breaths. He summoned his wand and added the charm to make giant dicks slip into virgin arses more easily.

            “Hmmm?” Draco murmured, wondering what Harry was doing casting another spell.

            “It wouldn’t go in; it was too big,” Harry explained, slowly easing further onto the giant cock, which he could swear was bigger than it had been the year before. “You feel bigger.”

            “I grew,” Draco admitted. He was still young and his dick was still growing regularly. Maybe he should’ve told Harry that before they tried this. Maybe they should’ve been stretching Harry’s arse again. But then he lost that train of thought when the tip of his dick slid into Harry’s hot extremely tight arse. It was being squeezed impossibly tight as Harry took it within his body.

            Harry groaned as he processed the fact that his husband’s cock that had already been bordering on the edge of world’s largest cock status, was now even bigger. He thought about calling up the Guinness World Records people and reporting his husband’s cock size to them. He let out a slightly hysterical giggle as he considered what the muggle run business would think if they could see Draco’s cock. But they couldn’t, because Draco’s cock belonged to Harry and he wasn’t sharing.

            Harry sunk down lower onto Draco’s cock, slowly inching his way down the humongous head. He felt like his arse was being split in two as the head impaled him and opened his hole up. The flare of the head of Draco’s cock jutted out so far that Harry had to bounce up and down on it a few times before it finally slipped inside his body. It stung as the widest portion entered him and he paused in his descent for a minute for his arse to acclimate to the intrusion.

            Draco’s dick head was being squeezed tightly by Harry’s clenching arse. He could feel the pulsating of blood as it flowed through the veins and arteries of Harry’s anus and it felt exquisite. His back arched, pushing his dick just a bit deeper inside Harry’s canal. He pulled back a bit and then rocked up into Harry’s arse again, because it felt so good that he couldn’t help himself. And then Harry was moving again, helping him work his dick in deeper.

            The way Draco was squirming, arching and rolling his hips underneath Harry felt extremely good as Draco’s cock moved back and forth within Harry’s body. The movement kept nudging Draco’s cock up against Harry’s cervix, sending jolts of fiery electricity through Harry’s system. That got him moving again, lowering himself onto the massive cock, lifting back up a centimeter, and then lowering himself down further, filling more and more of his arse. And then Draco’s cock finally reached his prostate and the ecstasy started racing through his system as each movement caused Draco’s cock to push into that sensitive network of neurons. And then the ridge of the cock head grazed past his prostate and Harry’s cock twitched and his ballocks clenched as he fought the impulse to cum right then and there.

            Draco was about three fourths of the way inside Harry’s body and he wanted to prolong it much further, so he held still, waiting for Harry to calm down. While he waited, his left hand went to Harry’s hip and his right reached around to Harry’s back, rubbing soothing circles at the small of Harry’s back. When Harry’s eyes opened and looked at him again, he knew Harry was ready, so he bucked up with his hips, pulled down on Harry’s hip, and forced his dick just a little deeper into Harry’s hot canal.

            Harry squirmed on the intruding cock, arching his back and forcing the head of Draco’s cock to press more firmly against his prostate. He panted for breath and was lost in a haze of euphoria as Draco pulled him down further, impaling him ever more thoroughly on that massive shaft. Harry looked down at his own stomach and saw his flesh ripple as Draco moved within him, pulling back a bit, before pushing in deeper again. He was thinner than he’d been last year, having lost a few pounds on the meager diet he’d endured during all of those months in that tent; that combined with the fact that Draco’s cock was even wider than it had been meant that there was visibly a slight protrusion in Harry’s lower abdomen from the cock inside him.

            Harry almost came again as he realized that that protrusion was bulging out right underneath his belly button. His own cock was hard as a ramrod and sticking up against his belly, his cock head resting against his naval, like it always did. He watched with wide eyes and pupils blown as Draco inched his way further into Harry’s body, sending the protrusion rising further up his abdomen, forcing his belly button out, jutting into Harry’s waiting cock head. He felt the sensation of Draco’s cock head touching the rear of his colon and the sensation from his own cock head as his belly pushed out into it. It felt soft, smooth, and slick with precum as Draco pulled back and pushed in, sending Harry’s skin rippling with the movement. Those ripples felt divine as they traveled in waves over his cock head.

            Harry moaned and clenched his eyes closed against the urge to cum. He’d never imagined that it was possible for Draco to fuck him this good and deep. Now that it was happening, he found it all very hot and erotic, making him squirm and arch his back on that impaling cock and forcing the bulge of his stomach even further out into his purple cock head.

            Draco’s eyes followed Harry’s line of sight down Harry’s body, looking for what image had apparently turned his husband into a writhing ball of goo on his dick; not that he minded, of course, because Harry’s arching and squirming was causing Harry’s colon to slide and compress against his shaft, sending jolts of delight through his buggering dick, traveling through his body and making his toes curl as his back arched up into Harry’s hot, slick hole. He had both of his hands on Harry’s hips now, pulling down more insistently, sinking Harry’s body further onto his shaft. He was almost all of the way in now, just another couple of centimeters to go.

            And then Draco almost came as he caught sight of the way Harry’s stomach was rippling and bulging with each thrust of dick within Harry’s pliable body. He pulled back and then pushed in even deeper, sending the apex of the bulge past Harry’s naval and the widest part of the bulge, where the ridge of Draco’s dick head was, level with the ridge of Harry’s dick head. He groaned and rolled his hips, watching the waves ripple and flow across Harry’s skin. He impulsively moved his right hand from where it had been pulling down on Harry’s hip to Harry’s dick. He pushed Harry’s dick head with a flat palm, forcing the hard prick against Harry’s stomach, which in turn pushed Harry’s flesh into Harry’s colon, which pushed into Draco’s dick head. Draco’s eyes rolled back in his head and his dick twitched and began to spasm as he felt the exquisite sensation.

            It was all too much and Draco was orgasming, spilling his load deep within Harry. Harry’s arse was spasmming too, clenching Draco’s dick as Harry’s dick twitched and squirted hot wet viscous white fluid onto Draco’s hand. He wrapped his hand around Harry’s cumming dick head and uncontrollably bucked up into Harry’s arse as the waves of ecstasy washed over his body and every muscle in said body contracted in bliss.

            Draco’s hot hand was pressing against Harry’s cock head and that alone almost had Harry cumming. It was all he could do to clench his ballocks and hold out for another second more and then Draco’s cock was pulsing and twitching inside Harry’s arse and he could feel each spurt of jizz as it left Draco’s body and coated Harry’s anal walls. That was too much for Harry to stand and his body jerked as his ballocks exploded in waves of pleasure as the euphoria coursed through his system. He shot wave after wave of ejaculate onto Draco’s hand as his ballocks repeatedly clenched and released, only to clench again. His dry spell was over and all of the fluid that had been building up in his ballocks was finally and exquisitely released in what could only be described as a bout of prolonged ecstasy.

            Harry just kept cumming and Harry’s arse kept clenching Draco’s spasmming dick over and over again, prolonging and drawing out Draco’s orgasm until Draco was completely spent and every last drop of fluid was pulled from his body. He came harder and longer than he’d ever cum before and he was exhausted as he lay there underneath Harry’s hot body, gasping for breath he just couldn’t catch. Every muscle in his body ached in a good way as he came down from his peak. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep just as his breathing evened out.

            Harry came so hard it felt like his ballocks had wrung themselves out. His stomach was covered in globs of semen, which were slowly dripping down his body, leaving cool trails in their wake. Draco’s cum filled fist was still wrapped around Harry’s cock head and it felt like it was engulfed in a sea of liquid that was dripping down around his shaft, coating the base of his cock and his pubes with spunk. His arse too felt like it was filled with warm liquid and a cock that even in its rapidly softening state was still large and thick and was still deep within his body.

            Harry cleaned them up a bit, before pulling Draco’s sleeping form into his arms, resting his head onto Draco’s shoulder. He fell asleep like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Harry and Draco will go out in public together…


	23. Chapter23

            Draco woke up only an hour after falling asleep, because his chest ached with milk. He got up and put the thing back on, redressing while he was at it. And then, since he was up, he wanted to check on his boys. They should still be sound asleep for another hour, but he hated being away from them and suddenly felt anxious at the separation. Harry was asleep, so Draco wrote a note.

            Draco flooed to the villa, going immediately to the nursery. His aunt was there sleeping on the guest bed, Teddy was sleeping in Sev’s old basinet, and Sev and Scorp were sleeping in their cribs. He knew he shouldn’t wake them, but for some reason he felt the uncontrollable urge to hold his boys. He also wanted to nurse, so he picked his sleeping little raven haired son up, taking the baby with him back to his bedroom.

            Scorp rested his head on Draco’s shoulder, keeping his eyes closed as he remained in a state of half-slumber. But when Draco placed his nipple at Scorp’s lips, his son latched on and sucked. Draco suddenly felt relief that all was right in the world, because his son was waiting for him. He could go away and spend a few hours alone with Harry and Scorp was still here, just as he left the baby. He fell asleep with his arms wrapped around his baby.

            Harry woke up in the morning and noticed that the bed was empty. At first he figured Draco was eating in the kitchen, but then he noticed the parchment on the dresser. He picked it up and realized that Draco had already gone home.

            Draco had told Harry he was planning on going back home to nurse Scorpius, given the baby’s newfound dislike for bottles, so Harry tried not to be too upset about it. He knew Scorpius needed to nurse and that Draco wouldn’t be able to sleep worrying about the twins. Still, he did wish his husband was there with him and that they had woken up in each other’s arms after their intimate night. And it would’ve been nice to get in another shag before going home, but at least his arse had that freshly buggered feel to it and his whole body still felt good.

            Harry got dressed, grabbed the uneaten dessert, and apparated back to the villa, where everyone was already up for the morning. He found Draco watching all three boys by himself in the drawing room and set the tray of dessert on the desk.

            “Morning, Harry,” Draco called with Teddy in his arms. Then he noticed the strawberries and ice cream. “Is that for me?”

            “It was for you last night, but I forgot about it in my post-coital bliss,” Harry answered. “You wouldn’t be up for it now would you? You probably just ate.”

            “If you haven’t figured it out, I’m producing enough milk to burn off a shit-ton of calories, which means I can eat again.”

            It was a nice day, so they took it out to the patio. A house elf transported both of the baby swings, a bouncer, and the dessert tray, while Harry carried a twin on each hip and Draco took Teddy. Harry moved to set Sev back into the swing he had come out of, but Sev fussed and whined at that, so he moved to put Scorp in his swing, which also resulted in fussing and whining.

            “Draco, they don’t want to go back into the swings,” Harry said as Draco sat down with Teddy at the patio table.

            “Of course not; they saw the ice cream. Mipsy, bring the highchairs and two bowls of breast milk ice cream.” Draco had Teddy on his shoulder to burp, having just fed the baby before Harry arrived.

            Mipsy complied and switched the swings for highchairs and added two small bowls of ice cream to the tray of desserts.

            “Breast milk ice cream?” Harry asked, putting Sev into the blue highchair and buckling the straps, before moving on to putting Scorp in the green highchair and buckling his other son in. He was quickly becoming adept at juggling babies.

            “Yes, well, I happen to love ice cream. It’s basically just breast milk and vanilla. It’s great for a hot day like this and easy for the elves to make. Put the bowls on their trays and let them feed themselves with their hands.”

            Harry did as instructed and Sev and Scorp both happily dug in. “I didn’t think you’d be the type to let them have sweets.”

            “Yes, well cold treats are good for sore gums. Once you experience the cutting of the first tooth certain fantasies are replaced with reality.”

            “And the elves just turned your breast milk into ice cream?”

            “Yes. Your sons happen to think it’s delicious.”

            “Obviously, with the way they’re going at it. Do you normally hose them off afterwards?”

            “Yeah, duh. Sev already has some in his hair.”

            “Sev, it goes in your mouth, not on your face,” Harry teased his messy baby.

            “Professor Snape says Sev takes after you. He said you were a messy baby.”

            “How would he know? I don’t think he saw me until I was eleven.”

            “I don’t know; that’s just what he said. Maybe your mother wrote to him.”

            “Yeah, she must’ve.”

            Teddy burped, so Draco put the newborn into the bouncer, before getting a bowl of ice cream for himself and popping a strawberry into his mouth. Sev was making a mess of it, getting as much on him as in him, while Scorp was neater and more efficient. Scorp let out a squeal of delight and reached for another handful of the creamy treat, getting it mostly into his mouth. Harry too enjoyed his dessert and even fed Draco a few strawberries.

            After the dessert, they took the twins upstairs for a bath, putting Teddy down for a nap in the process. Later Harry asked Andy and Narcissa if they’d watch the children so that he could take Draco to the Ministry to get his apparition license. The women agreed, so after the twins went down for their nap, they flooed to the Ministry.

            The Ministry was crowded and Draco got nervous as he looked out at the sea of people. The last time he’d been here it was empty, while now it seemed like everyone was staring at him. Well him and Harry, because Harry was with him this time, holding his hand, and leading him towards the apparition licensing division. He heard the click of people taking their picture and knew this was going to wind up in the papers tomorrow.

            They didn’t have an appointment, but he was Harry Malfoy, Savior of the Wizarding World, Boy-Who-Lived-Again-And-Again-And-Again, and the Chosen One. His husband needed an apparition license and it was the least the Ministry could do to repay him for his part in the war to let them cut in line. As it turned out, the person who had been schedule for that particular time slot was dead, which was unfortunate for the departed, but worked out well for them. Thus Draco got in, apparated, got his license, and they were out of there again in record time.

            They were just about to apparate home when Draco remembered that they needed soothers for Teddy, so he asked Harry to take him to a muggle store. They apparated to the streets of London just outside the Ministry and then walked to the nearest muggle store, which was a Debenhams Plus.

            Harry led Draco inside and quickly navigated their way through the huge store to the baby section. They had to look through a few aisles of baby stuff before they spotted the soothers. Draco went through all of the packages of soothers, looking for red ones, since Scorp and Sev already had soothers of the other colors and he didn’t want to get the soothers mixed up. There were only two packages, so he grabbed both.

            Harry was leading Draco back towards the front of the store, when Draco asked, “Harry, can I have a muggle-stick-quill?”

            “What?” Harry asked, taken by surprise.

            “A stick-quill; I saw one at the muggle-hospital and the muggles were writing with them without any ink.”

            “You mean a pen? Yeah, sure, they should be over this way,” Harry said, heading in the direction of stationary. Pens were cheap, so he grabbed a package of a dozen and added it to the cart. “What did you want them for?”

            “I want to figure out what kinda magic muggles use to make them work,” Draco explained, following Harry once more towards the front of the store.

            “It’s not magic. There’s ink in a tube on the inside and it come out when writing.”

            “With lightening energy?” Draco asked, remembering what Professor Snape had taught him about muggles.

            “No, without energy. I’ll take one apart and show you when we get home,” Harry said, navigating them to the checkout counter. The line wasn’t long, but it was the only one open and the person in front of them had a price check, which took a long time.

            While they were standing in line, Draco looked around at the products surrounding the registers. One side was lined with muggle candies and mints and the other side had crisps. On the ground, there was an out of place box that he picked up to examine more closely. It showed a grass lawn covered in a shiny blue mat with small streams of water squirting on it. There was a child on his belly on the mat who looked to be having fun.

            “What’s a slip-n-slide?” Draco asked, reading the box.

            “A water toy for playing outside during the summer. It’s a bit early in the season for one, but basically the kids slide on the plastic tarp when it’s wet with water. It’s a cheap way to cool off in the heat if you don’t have a pool,” Harry answered quietly, hoping that none of the muggles nearby would hear. Dressed in wizarding robes as they were, they were getting plenty of strange looks and he wanted to rush them out of the store before anything happened. If only the line would move already.

            “And how do they get the water to come out in small streams like that?”

            Harry explained the concept of a pressurized water hose and the lady in front of them took her receipt and finally left.

            Draco put the toy back where he found it and Harry paid the muggle. They apparated back to the villa, safe and sound.

            Sev and Scorp were still asleep and Andy and Narcissa were surprised to see Harry and Draco returned so quickly. Draco handed the bag of soothers to Narcissa. Teddy was sleeping and not causing any trouble where he was, so Harry and Draco went up to their bedroom where Draco pulled out the pens and Harry showed him how to open them up. Harry tried to explain how the technology worked, but soon found himself wishing for Hermione, because he didn’t understand it as well as he thought he did. Harry said it was gravity and whatever else that made quills work and instead of admitting his ignorance on such a simple everyday implement, he distracted Draco with a kiss. They made out on their bed for an hour or so until Sev and Scorp woke up.

            They took the twins down to the drawing room and collected Teddy from the study and once again set about caring for the three babies. After half an hour, Lucius apparated in and asked Harry about wards for the Manor. Lucius had finished cleaning up and repairing the Manor and now he was concerned with making the place safe enough for the Malfoy family to live in. Having Harry with them imposed a whole new security risk the Malfoys had never had to deal with before. Thus, Lucius wanted Harry’s advice on just what wards should be put up.

            While Harry was in the other room talking to Lucius, Draco fed Sev a bottle and nursed Scorp. When Sev finished, Draco set him free on the carpet to crawl around while he finished nursing. Then when Scorp was done, he put both boys into their jumpers to play. Teddy started crying for a bottle a few minutes later, so Draco acquired another from Jingly and was just starting to feed Teddy when his aunt came in.

            “Oh, you’ve got him. I heard Teddy crying and I thought you were alone, so I decided to check and make sure you’re alright. But I guess I needn’t have worried; you’re so good with all of them. I never would’ve thought you’d be able to handle three babies, but you seem to have it covered,” Andy said.

            “Thank you,” Draco replied.

            “You know it’d be easier if you just nursed him, dear. Nursing is best and fortifies the parent and baby bond. I know you’re not his birth parent, Draco, but you’re playing an important role in Teddy’s life now and I know nursing will help you bond.”

            “What?” Draco asked, taken aback.

            “Harry told you what we talked about the other day, didn’t he? That I want Teddy to live with you?”

            “Yes, he did.”

            “And well you’re providing the breast milk anyway, so it’ll be easier if Teddy stays with you and you nurse him. That way you don’t have to keep pumping the milk for him.”

            “Aunt Andy, did Harry talk to you about us adopting Teddy yet?”

            “No, dear, he didn’t say anything. I hadn’t thought of it.”

            “Well would you consider letting us adopt him?”

            “You are great young men, but I’d have to give it some consideration. I know I’m not going to be around forever and I’m getting older... It’ll be good to know that Teddy has the two of you to raise him if something was to happen to me, but adoption is a big step and I’ll have to think about it.”

            “Bonding with a baby that I don’t know if you’ll let me keep is a big step. I won’t nurse him until the adoption papers are signed. I have to pump anyway, for Sev, so it’s no additional work,” Draco said handing Teddy over to Andy and standing up. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m just gonna go feed the twins some green beans.” He picked up his twins and went into the dining room and did just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco and Andy’s talk wasn’t long, but it was overdue. Up next Harry will be going to the Burrow to plan the raid on Bellatrix’ funeral.


	24. Chapter24

            Saturday was the start of the little petty fights. It started at breakfast, when Harry received an invitation to the Burrow from Ron and Hermione. His friends were just back from Australia and their mission to restore the Grangers’ memories and wanted to tell him about it. He was supposed to be going with Lucius to the Manor, but Lucius had an errand, freeing Harry to go to the Burrow.

            The problem was that Draco didn’t particularly like the idea of Harry hanging out with Ron. He wanted to order Harry not to go, but he didn’t want to be that kind of husband, so he told Harry to go and thought himself quite generous for it. But then that generosity was thrown back in his face when his Aunt Andy decided to go with and take Teddy to boot. He was quickly growing attached to the baby and didn’t want Teddy around Ron, but had no rights to the baby and was unable to do anything about it. He sternly suggested that they not take Teddy, because it wasn’t safe, but no one listened to him.

            Since Draco was powerless to stop them from visiting the Weasleys, he stirred up trouble the only way he could think of: he told Harry to offer Kreacher to the Weasleys. The Gaunt family house elves had shown up accepting his offer to be their master, resulting in too many elves at the Villa. He needed to move some of the elves over to Grimmauld Place, which would be easier if Kreacher wasn’t there. Giving the elf to the Weasleys would solve that problem, and piss Hermione off. Hermione would in all likelihood take her upset out on Ron Weasley, which what Draco was aiming for with his passive aggressive tendencies.

            At the Burrow, Ron had seen Draco’s latest interview with the Quibbler and the invitation to Bellatrix’s funeral and been extremely upset with Harry. Harry didn’t like it either, even though Draco was planning to hand over a list of the worst attendees, and was easily persuaded by Ron to crash the funeral. They spent most of their visit planning how to do so, coming up with a scheme to use Ron’s deluminator to transport them to Draco’s side during the funeral. Draco, naturally, would have to be kept in the dark for the plan to work. Hermione warned that Draco wouldn’t like it, but Harry was going forward with it anyway.

            Unfortunately for Draco, Harry came home with news that Hermione had gotten upset with Ron about Kreacher, but Bill and Fleur had come to the rescue by agreeing to take the elf. And there was something off about Harry, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. That only prolonged his foul mood. Then Harry was off again for the rest of the day, this time going with his father to work on the wards for Malfoy Manor. And even though this was an activity he approved of, he was once again left home alone with three babies, one he didn’t even have the right to refuse Weasley visitation. He resented always being left at home while everyone else got to go out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!


	25. Chapter25

            Sunday started with good news: Andy had talked to Molly and decided that Harry and Draco should adopt Teddy. She thought it would be best for Teddy to grow up with parents as part of a normal family unit.

            Harry thought that news should make Draco happy, but Draco still sensed that something was off. He didn’t know that Harry was lying to him about not crashing the funeral, but he had a bad feeling about something and was still pissed from the day before. On top of that, he was worried that even with adopting Teddy, he would be overruled in his parenting attempts and that the baby would still be taken over to the Weasleys.

            Then when Harry’s adventure in feeding the twins for the first time resulted in two babies absolutely covered in mashed green beans, Draco took his frustrations out by chastising the babies not to eat like the Weasleys.

            By this point, Harry had had enough of Draco’s insulting the Weasleys. Draco had been doing it for over a year now and it was getting old. At first, Harry understood, because Ron had hurt Draco and the babies. But now, he decided to say something and specifically asked Draco to keep the vitriol to Ron, and not insult the entire family.

            Draco agreed, but moments later insulted the Burrow, without realizing he was doing it. Harry called him on it, but he didn’t know what Harry was talking about, so he changed the subject to baby names. He didn’t like Teddy’s name, which was Edward Remus Lupin. Ward was the pureblood nickname for Edward, not Teddy. Teddy was a muggle name and both nicknames were stupid. He was thinking of Remy, short for Remus, was a better nickname. Or maybe they shouldn’t shorten it and just go with Edward.

            On top of the nickname issue, Teddy’s name didn’t match the twins’ names, because there was no astrological component. Draco wanted to at the very least change the middle name to Cygnus, after his maternal grandfather, citing that Grandfather Black had been the only one to refuse to cease communicating with Andromeda.

            Harry didn’t like taking the Remus out of Teddy’s name, but he was willing to consider adding Cygnus as a second middle name.

            That led to a discussion of names in general. Harry and Draco were trying to have another baby and Draco suggested they name her Narcissa Lily Malfoy. Harry countered with Lily Narcissa Malfoy, insisting that his mother’s name should be first, because his mother was dead. Then Harry suggested taking the Narcissa out completely and asked what other names Draco liked. Draco listed a number of constellations, all of which Harry hated. They just had completely different taste in names, with each of them vetoing every name the other suggested.

            Then Draco brought the subject back to boy names and asked which boy names Harry liked, thinking that it would be easier to convince Harry to change Teddy’s name to something Harry liked. Harry mentioned liking Fredrick. Draco called the name stupid and disparaged Harry for even suggesting they name a child after a Weasley.

            At that point, Harry once again put his foot down on Draco insulting the Weasleys, because the other Weasleys weren’t to blame for Ron’s actions.

            They were both on each other’s nerves all day, although Harry did forgive Draco when Draco started talking about how he just wanted Teddy to fit in with the family and be one of the boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they’ve agreed to adopt Teddy! As for the name, I’m thinking of either only changing the last name, or adding in Cygnus, to make it Edward Remus Cygnus Malfoy. What do you think?


	26. Chapter26

            Monday morning, Harry apparated into the Auror department of the Ministry of Magic. He told the Malfoys he was going to request help building the wards for Malfoy Manor, which he was planning on doing, but he also wanted to talk to Auror Robards. Draco got the feeling Harry was keeping something from him, but chose not to say anything.

            Robards looked out his open office door and was pleasantly surprised to see Harry Malfoy knocking on it. “Come in, come in, Harry! I’m so glad to see you. Have a seat, what can I help you with?” Robards asked.

            “I need help erecting wards on Malfoy Manor to protect my family, but there was something else I wanted to talk to you about, sir. Um, in private. Do you mind if I close the door?” Harry asked.

            “No, no, of course not,” Robards replied, spelling the door closed. “I’d be happy to send out a couple of my most trusted Aurors to help protect your family.”

            “Great.”

            “Now what else did you want to talk to me about, Harry?”

            “Well, have you read the latest addition of the Quibbler? It came out on Saturday.”

            “Ah yes, the open invitation to all Death Eaters to attend the Bellatrix Lestrange funeral?

            “Yes.”

            “I got the impression that you wouldn’t know about it.”  
            “Well yes, my husband was going for that effect. How else would we lure the Death Eaters into the trap?”

            “So it is a trap! I knew it couldn’t be anything other than a trap with you involved.”

            Harry explained about Draco’s original idea for the trap, to get the list of names of Death Eaters. Robards didn’t look too happy about that, but his face lit up when Harry told of the plan to use the deluminator to gate crash the funeral. Robards was very eager to help, although he did mention that the unknown jurisdiction would complicate matters, but still, he pledged all available Aurors. Aurors had a way of summoning other Aurors to their location, so they only needed to side-along one Auror in. The new plan was for Hermione, Ron, and Harry to meet up with one fully trained Auror and then the four of them together would gate crash the funeral.

            Once the details of the funeral raid were worked out, Robards took Harry around to meet some of his most trusted Aurors to talk about wards, and that’s what they were doing when Kingsley walked in.

            “Harry, my man, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on a month’s paid holiday,” Kingsley said. “If there’s anyone who deserves it, it’s you.”

            “Thanks Kingsley. And thanks for having me hired and the back pay. And thanks especially for the benefits; I really needed those.”

            “You’re more than welcome. It’s the least we could do after you took care of Voldemort for us. Actually, I’m trying to arrange for Order of Merlins for all the most critical players in the war, such as yourself, your husband, and Severus Snape.”

            “That’s great! Draco’s gonna love that.”

            “So Harry, I ask again, what are you doing back at work already?”

            “I need help erecting wards on Malfoy Manor. It’s too big for any of the wards I’m familiar with to work. And I’ll be living there with my family, so the wards have to hold against all manner of attacks. I’d ask Ron and Hermione to help, but the Malfoys hate Ron.”

            “You should have come straight to me, Harry! I’d love to help you with this problem. And it’s not good to let just anyone help you with wards; this sort of information really mustn’t get out. You don’t have to worry about me though, I won’t risk the safety of my star Auror; I’d probably lose my job if anything happened to you.”

            “Thanks, Kingsley. When can you help?” Harry asked.

            Kingsley was very busy these days, but he took Harry back to his office and looked at his schedule, before agreeing to come over Wednesday to help. While Harry was there, Kingsley discussed which types of wards and protective spells to use. They decided on a large number of spells that would work across large distances and cover the expansive grounds associated with the Manor, as well as many stronger charms that covered smaller areas and would be placed on the house, including the fidelius charm. Kingsley agreed to cast the fidelius charm with Harry as the secret keeper.

            Kingsley had business to discuss with several of the Aurors, so when they finished talking, he walked Harry back over to the Auror department.

            Robards then informed Harry that Scorpius’ muggle hospital stay would be covered, since it was an emergency. That meant that Robards’ assistant just needed a copy of the medical bill and then a reimbursement check would be made out.

            Harry thanked Robards for his help and then apparated back to the Villa, where he found Draco alone with the three babies and visibly upset about something. Harry took one look at the tear tracks running down Draco’s face and knew something was wrong.

            “Draco, what’s wrong?” Harry asked, sitting down next to Draco and wrapping his arm around Draco.

            Draco leaned into Harry’s side and rested his head on Harry’s shoulder.

            “Where were you? I thought you’d be back hours ago,” Draco said. Harry had been gone far longer than discussed.

            Harry could see a lone tear making it down Draco’s sharp cheekbone. He leaned over and kissed it away, before replying, “I was at the Ministry, talking to Kingsley about wards, just like I said I would be when I left this morning. Why are you crying?” Harry asked.

            Draco didn’t really know why he was crying, so he shrugged. He wasn’t pregnant anymore, so he couldn’t blame that and he hadn’t been this emotional in months. But Harry’s return was a big change and he always was the more sensitive of the two. On top of that, everyone had left him to do their own thing and he was stuck at home with the babies, again. He was still upset about how little control he seemed to have over Teddy, despite the fact that he was doing all of the caring for the baby. Add to that, Harry’s strange behavior; he’d got the feeling something was off several times now and then Harry had been gone all day. While Harry was gone, Draco couldn’t help imagining what Harry could be up to.

            “Why’d it take so long?” Draco asked.

            Harry blushed and stumbled as he tried to figure out what to say in order to keep from being caught. He ended up saying Robards and the other Aurors had talked his ear off, but when pressed, couldn’t come up with any details of what they’d talked about, other than the wards.

            Draco knew Harry was lying; he could read it on Harry’s face. He wanted to trust Harry, so he decided to forget his fears and that he wasn’t going to say anything. He pursed his lips and let the lie go.

            “Where is everyone?” Harry asked, changing the subject.

            “They went out. I told Mother to go, because I thought you’d be back any minute.”

            “Sorry.” Remembering one detail of what had actually been discussed, Harry added, “I was on my way back when Robards stopped me to tell me that Scorp’s hospital stay will be covered by the insurance.” That conversation had only taken a few minutes, but at least it was something he could tell Draco about.

            Draco agreed that it was a good thing, but he was still rather upset.

            Harry asked again why Draco was so upset, wondering if something had happened with the boys.

            The babies had given Draco some trouble, but he’d gotten it sorted and they were fine now. He told Harry about it and Harry comforted him. He didn’t want to mention that he was still upset about whatever Harry was keeping from him, so instead he proceeded to explain why he was upset over Teddy. He didn’t think it was fair that he was doing all of the work and making none of the decisions. He was also concerned that until they actually signed the adoption paperwork, Teddy could be taken away from him and he’d already grown too attached for that.

            “I love you,” Harry replied, looking Draco in the eye.

            That must’ve been the right thing to say, because Draco’s eyes melted and he quickly leaned forward to claim Harry’s lips. They kissed passionately for several minutes until a cry from Scorp broke them apart. Harry would’ve liked nothing more than to fuck his husband right then and there, but they had babies to take care of, so he held back. Instead he fed Sev a bottle, while Draco nursed Scorp.

            “And you don’t have to worry about Teddy, because Andy already agreed that we could adopt him. He’ll be ours soon and then no one will be able to take him away,” Harry added.

            Draco was unconvinced. Until those papers were signed, anything could happen. But he let Harry distract him into forgetting his worries.

            Harry and Draco passed the time until the family came home by entertaining themselves with the Gaunt family house elves. Their names were in parseltongue but they responded to the English translations. They were a family of four, with a mother, father, son, and daughter called Tea Cup, Viper, Venom, and Sugar, respectively. They spoke enough parseltongue to be able to translate all of little Sev’s hisses and so the object of the game was to get Sev to hiss and then get the elves to translate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the Aurors are involved and so the plan for the trap grows... Please review!


	27. Chapter27

            At breakfast Tuesday morning, Druella announced her intentions to move back into her own house and that was fine by everyone.

            Hermione came over after lunch. She carried on quite a few conversations with Draco, starting with one about appropriate presents to give the muggles who had saved Scorpius’ life; a photo of the baby they saved and a donation to their NICU was the conclusion the pair came to. After that she explained how the muggle-pens worked in much greater detail than Harry had managed. And finally they talked about house elf rights. The disagreement didn’t go to blows, but instead sent Hermione off to do more reading on the nature of the house elf species.

            In the afternoon, Draco took a nap with the twins, leaving Harry and Hermione plenty of time to talk privately, with just Teddy around. Their plan for crashing Bellatrix’s funeral was pretty much set, but Hermione needed to be informed of the things Harry had arranged with the Aurors. Then she went off on one of her strategy maps, in which she tried to map out every possibility and get Harry to help her figure out how the plan could still work if some part of the plan failed. For example, if the Aurors bailed, they could go by themselves. That was an easy one. A hard one, on the other hand, was what to do if Draco wasn’t at the funeral. The deluminator required the desire for a loved one to work. If there was not at least one loved one on the inside, their entire plan would collapse. But Harry was convinced that would not happen, because Draco was going to that funeral and nothing major would go wrong.

            Wednesday, Kingsley met Harry and Lucius over at Malfoy Manor and the three of them spent the entire day erecting wards. They didn’t finish, but they did get all the most difficult wards up, including the fidelius charm with Harry as secret keeper, before supper. All of the remaining wards and charms were easier to put up and Harry thought that he and Lucius would be able to erect them on their own. They would have to, or risk telling someone outside the family the secret now that the fidelius was in place.

            Thursday was Scorpius’ big healer appointment at St. Mungo’s and everyone wanted to know what the healers would say. The entire family wanted to go, but there were two other babies and they didn’t want to take them all out into the public; that would probably instigate a media frenzy. The photos taken of Harry and Draco at the Ministry last week had made the front page of the paper and all the couple had done was to hold hands as they walked through the Ministry.

            It was decided that Lucius, Andy, Narcissa, and Druella would stay home with Sev and Teddy, while Harry, Draco, and Scorp flooed to St. Mungo’s. They were about to leave, when Harry remembered his invisibility cloak. He summoned it and wrapped Scorp in the cloak. Now it looked like Draco was wrapping his arms around a bundle of thin air, but it was still better than getting ambushed when the public realized they were out with the son of the Chosen One.

            “Good idea, Harry,” Draco said.

            “Thanks. Now Scorp, you just keep quiet and no one will know what your father’s holding,” Harry said and Scorp squealed.

            Harry flooed over first, followed by Draco and Scorp. They checked in with a receptionist and were directed to the pediatric wing; the other patients stared at them as they walked passed and someone even took their picture, but even though Scorp wasn’t silent, he was concealed under the cloak, so the photo would show little. They sat down in an empty waiting room and removed Scorp from the invisibility cloak. They worried that someone would come in then and take their picture or alert the media, but they were only in the waiting room for a minute before Healer Pritchard called them back to an examination room.

            Healer Pritchard was a tall gangly wizard with a full head of hair that looked like it may have been very dark once, but was now mostly grey. He spoke in the type of happy tone that children took to. He asked Draco to remove Scorpius’ clothes, leaving the baby in just a nappy so that he could examine the malformed leg. He spent half an hour looking at the leg, casting diagnostic spells, and testing Scorpius’ ability to move the leg.

            Finally Healer Pritchard finished his examination and said, “The leg is bowed and the foot is turned in, as you said the muggle healers diagnosed. I can fix that easily. The problem is that it’s also too thin and he seems to have little muscle control; that is harder to fix. I can give him muscle strengthening potions, but they aren’t a cure-all, they may not fix the problem, and they might damage his liver, because he is so young. I think the best thing to do right now is to put him on the very minimum dosage and for you to exercise his leg every day. We can try that for now and see how it works out.”

            Draco had several questions for the healer, but eventually he agreed with the healer’s decision to put Scorpius on the low potion dose. Healer Pritchard cast healing spells on Scorpius’ leg, making it straight. Then the healer showed Harry and Draco how to exercise Scorpius’ leg, bending it up to Scorpius’ chest and then stretching it straight again. Scorpius was a good sport at first, but then on the third bend, he started crying.

            “He’s not used to moving that leg, so it’ll fatigue easily and he may start crying. Don’t push him; if he cries, then stop, but pick it up again the next day. After a few weeks of ten repetitions once a day, you can increase it to twice a day. I’d like to see him back in a month to see how it’s going,” Healer Pritchard said.

            Harry and Draco agreed and then Healer Pritchard sent them over to a general pediatrician, named Healer Davies. Healer Davies was a blond haired witch, who checked all of Scorpius’ vitals, before concluding that he was in perfect health. She wanted them to bring in Severus for her to examine as well, but Sev was fine and they didn’t want to risk taking him out of the protection of the fidelius charm for a check-up he didn’t need.

            The healers let them leave through a private floo directly from the pediatric ward and then Harry and Draco were finally home again, safe and sound with their baby. Everyone was waiting for them in the drawing room to find out how it went. Draco and Harry told them the news and then showed off the newly straightened leg. A small family celebration followed, during which Draco announced that they were trying for another baby and Narcissa agreed to watch the twins so that Harry and Draco could have another date.

            Lucius and Narcissa were very supportive of the idea of another baby. Lucius even suggested that Harry and Draco didn’t need to stop after this one, because he wouldn’t mind an entire Manor filled with grandbabies. How did the saying go? Barefoot and pregnant and out of the Aurors? Yes, that was how Lucius wanted his son-in-law.

            Verbally Andy said it was great news, but she kept it to herself that she thought three babies were enough for the young couple. Harry getting pregnant so soon would detract from Teddy and the attention he would get. Teddy wasn’t even the biological child and was close in age to the twins, so odds were that he’d get short changed in this family without another baby added to the mix.

            After the well-wishing from their family died down, Draco leaned into Harry, nipping at his ear, and whispered that he wanted their next date to be the next evening. It was too soon to tell if Harry was pregnant yet, but it didn’t hurt to try again. Harry was all too eager for the sex, which in his opinion was the best part about trying for a baby. He agreed instantly.

            Harry began to think of all of the arrangements he would need to make for his date tomorrow night. He’d have to go over to Grimmauld Place to clean up and get some fresh flowers. Maybe he could ask the Weasleys to come over and help again; either that or use whichever house elves Draco had sent to live at Grimmauld Place to help. He didn’t know which elves had been sent, but they had to be better than Kreacher.

            Then Harry remembered that tomorrow was Bellatrix’s funeral and that he would have to watch Draco all day, because he didn’t know what time it’d be. That meant that there was a chance that he wouldn’t be able to prepare Grimmauld Place, so he went while Draco and the twins went down for their afternoon nap. He left Draco a note saying where he was going and apparated to the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

            “Elves!” Harry called.

            Three elves came crawling out from under the furnace where Kreacher had kept his nest. The nest looked new and clean and there was nothing but fresh straw material in there. The elves were a family, with a mother, a father, and a baby elf. They introduced themselves as Cotton, Sparky, and baby Dooly. Cotton, the father, said how happy they were to be living at Grimmauld Place and promised to keep the place in tip top condition. Cotton was already working on fixing up the garden and Sparky assured Harry that she had cleaned the entire house and would make a dessert for tomorrow night.

            Harry thanked the elves, which caused Sparky to cover her baby’s ears as if Harry had said a bad word. He ignored the strange elf behavior and went up to his bedroom to check to make sure the room was as clean as Sparky said it was. Along the way he noticed that the house was in remarkably better shape; it had never looked this good when Kreacher was the house elf. Even his bedroom was spotless and his bed was made, which was not how he’d left it. Then he checked the bathroom, which was also perfectly clean. And with everything taken care of except for the flowers, he apparated back to the Villa and climbed into bed with Draco. He’d worry about picking some flowers from the garden tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!


	28. Chapter28

            Friday morning came and there was no talk of Bellatrix’s funeral. Harry kept two ears open for anything that might indicate what time the funeral would be, but the only funeral that came up at breakfast was Fred’s.

            “Harry and Andy, can you two take Teddy with you to Fred’s funeral? Lucius and I want to move my mother back into her own house tomorrow,” Narcissa said.

            Harry hadn’t even thought of taking Teddy with him before, just assuming that he would leave all the babies at home. But if Andy was going with him, then it would be too much to leave three babies at home, especially after Draco had gotten overwhelmed watching them the other day.

            “Yes, of course; I was planning on taking him with me anyway,” Andy spoke up before Harry finished contemplating it.

            “Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Harry added.

            “I don’t want you to take him; I can watch him,” Draco said. Watching three babies was hard and he was still resentful of frequently being left alone on baby duty, but it was better than alternative; anything was better than Teddy going to the Weasleys.

            “Nonsense, dear, I’m taking my grandson with me. I’ll be fine with him and three are too many for one person,” Andy replied.

            “I’ve been watching all three for a week now,” Draco protested.

            “Draco, Teddy will be fine at the Weasleys; he came back unharmed last time,” Narcissa said.

            “Yeah, and I promise not to let Ron anywhere near him,” Harry added, knowing that Ron was the issue.

            With his mother and aunt for the plan, Draco was eventually cowed into going along with it, although he didn’t like it.

            Talk turned to Druella’s house and whether or not it would be safe enough for the old woman. Of course that depended on whether or not Death Eaters would consider her a target, because of her grandson’s relationship with Harry. Druella insisted that she’d be fine and that as the mother of _the_ most notorious female Death Eater, she was immune to Death Eater attacks. Just because her grandson was soft, didn’t mean she wasn’t loyal to the cause.

            Harry got the distinct feeling that if any Death Eaters showed up at her door, Druella would invite them in for tea. All the wards in the world wouldn’t matter, because the barmy old lady would let her attackers in. He hoped that Druella was right and that she didn’t need to fear Death Eaters, for her own sake, but he made a mental note to talk to Robards about the situation. At the very least, the Aurors could keep regular watch on Druella’s house, hoping to catch the Death Eaters as they stopped by to visit.

            After breakfast, Lucius left to meet with a muggle businessman about a deal to import muggle jeans into the Wizarding World. He didn’t mention being back in time for Bellatrix’s funeral, but then he wasn’t invited, because of his own ongoing criminal case.

            Andy and Narcissa spent the morning once again working on funeral arrangements, while Harry spent the morning with Draco and the three babies.

            When they laid the babies down for their afternoon lap, Harry couldn’t take it anymore and asked, “When are you going to your aunt’s funeral?”

            “I’m not; it’s canceled. I’m taking a nap,” Draco answered and went to his room to lie down.

            Harry confirmed that the babies were all asleep, before following after, crawling into bed with Draco.

            “What happened? I thought it was today?” Harry asked.

            Draco had suspected that Harry might try to pull something—that would explaining the lying about the visit to Auror headquarters—but he didn’t know for certain until now. Harry’s sudden interest confirmed his suspicions. There was a flash of anger in his eyes, but then it passed as he began thinking of ways to use this to his advantage. Harry was in the wrong, which meant Harry owed Draco. He wanted to rage at Harry, but he wasn’t willing to give up an advantage in exchange for worthless venting. “What happened to letting me handle the trap?” he asked calculating.

            “Er,” Harry said, not knowing how to respond to that.

            “Er? That’s all you have to say? So much for martial trust.”

            “I trust you,” Harry insisted.

            “Just not with anything more than nappies and naptime. Right, I’m tired; let me sleep.” Draco closed his eyes, turned over, and made like he was more interested in his nap.

            “Fine, I won’t interfere with your trap if it means that much to you.” Harry knew that his trap couldn’t work without Draco attending the funeral. Worse, no trap could possibly ever work without a funeral in the first place. And Draco’s trap was better than no trap at all.

            “Too late; no one’s coming and it’s already been canceled.” Draco’s back remained turned, but his eyes reopened.

            “Wuh? What happened?”

            “Word was that Aurors were gonna be staking the place out. I guess the Death Eaters don’t trust me anymore than my husband does.” Draco’s voice was cold now as he spun his web. What had actually been said to him by his parents was that public pressure was too hot and now wasn’t a good time for it. That wasn’t suspicious on its own, but the fact that Grandmother Druella had nothing to say, was. Both sides were keeping something from him and putting him in the middle of it. He didn’t appreciate being left clueless. He was used to it from his parents, but not from Harry.

            “I’m sorry,” Harry apologized. “How did they find out?”

            Draco wasn’t about to give away a good hand by revealing the truth; not when a lie would serve his purposes better. “Sources say their information comes straight from the mouths of Weasleys.”

            There was only one Weasley who was in on the plan, Harry knew, and that was Ron. He knew there was no way Ron had betrayed him, but he thought it was possible the secret had slipped out of Ron’s big mouth. Ron had probably thought he was safe at the Burrow and accidentally let a visitor overhear. Harry couldn’t think of anyone in Ron’s family who’d betray them, except for maybe Percy. Surely Ron and Hermione wouldn’t blab and could be trusted, but what if they told Percy and Percy told someone? Or what if there was a spy within the Auror department? There were spies inside the Ministry _before_ and there probably still were spies in place. It was possible that a remaining spy in the Aurors had leaked the information to Percy Weasley and that Percy was the Weasley who blabbed. But then why would Percy pass along that sort of information?

            Harry was silent, lost in thought and Draco decided to let him suffer, so that the gravity of his mistake could seep in. Draco closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, thinking that later he’d get Harry to grovel for forgiveness.

            Harry wished he had done something to help with the ruse; something that would’ve convinced the Death Eaters that he was going to let the funeral happen without turning them in. Maybe he could’ve given a statement to such affect to the papers, saying that he felt people had a right to mourn without Aurors interrupting their funerals, even if they were Death Eaters. Then he decided that if he had come out saying something like that in the papers, the Death Eaters would _know_ for sure that it was a trap. Not saying something was probably the best thing he could’ve done.

            Harry’s pity party was interrupted by Teddy’s cries, so he got up and fed Teddy a bottle. When he was burping Teddy, it occurred to him that quite a few people were still waiting on him and would have to be told that there wasn’t going to be a funeral at all. He took Teddy downstairs, strapped him into the swing and wrote an owl to Ron and Hermione. Then he wrote another owl to Robards.

            Then Harry turned to Teddy, who was happily changing his hair color in time with the swing’s lightshow. Harry watched Teddy for a few minutes before he remembered his date with Draco tonight and that he still needed flowers. He asked Andy to watch Teddy and went outside to pick some flowers from the garden. Then he had an elf deliver the flowers to Grimmauld Place for later.

            In the time it took Harry to make the flower arrangement, Draco and the twins finished their naps. The rest of the evening passed in a whorl of childcare and a family dinner. When Draco was nursing Scorp one last time, Harry changed into something nicer.

            As soon as Sev and Scorp were asleep for the night, Harry and Draco apparated to Grimmauld Place. Harry headed for the stairs, but Draco held back in the entryway, staring at the covered portrait.

            “Um, don’t you want to come upstairs?” Harry asked quietly, trying not to wake the portrait.

            “You lie to me, you don’t trust me, and then you still expect sex?” Draco asked too loudly, waking up Aunt Walburga. He still wanted sex too, but he wanted to finish their earlier conversation first. Knowing his late-aunt, this location would give his words a dramatic flair.

            Walburga screeched and wailed, throwing open her curtains. Harry lunged to pull the black cloth back into place, while Draco slipped away up the stairs. Harry stunned the portrait and went in search of his husband, finding Draco looking out a second story window onto the street. It was growing dark and the street light had come on.

            Harry had wrongly assumed that the issue had been dropped. He hadn’t given much thought to how Draco would feel about him going behind Draco’s back. Only now did he began to feel bad and realize the enormity of his screw up. If things had been the other way around and Draco hadn’t trusted him, he’d feel betrayed. “I’m really sorry; I didn’t think. Please forgive me?” Harry asked, biting his lip.

            Harry had finally done what Draco wanted, so Draco took mercy on him. “Yes. I am your husband and that’s what husbands do; forgive each other when they mess up,” Draco said, holding his arms open for Harry. This argument would set the standard for the rest of their marriage; next time it could very well be Draco who messes up and Harry will then be forced to forgive Draco as quickly as Draco forgave Harry.

            Harry stepped into Draco’s arms, grateful and relieved that Draco wasn’t going to hold onto a grudge over this. Harry looked into Draco’s pale grey eyes and remembered how he’d fallen in love in the first place; he’d fucked it up then too and Draco had forgiven him. It seemed Draco was more understanding that he’d known and he loved his husband all the more for it. He was likely to make a hundred more mistakes in this marriage and it was good to know that Draco would likely forgive him for them all.

            Harry leaned in and kissed Draco, pushing the passion he felt for his husband into his lips. A good snog after an argument suited Draco just fine. They almost didn’t make it to the bedroom, but when they pulled apart for air, Draco noticed that they were still out in the hall and said, “Bedroom, now.” He had no desire to fuck on the floor, especially when there was a bed not far away.

            They stumbled into the bedroom. Harry started toeing off his shoes, pulling off his shirt, and working on the button and zipper of his trousers immediately.

            Draco too stripped to his pants. When he went to set down his breast pump, he noticed the flowers. “You made me flowers again?”

            “Yeah. You like flowers, right?” Harry asked, suddenly unsure whether it was the right thing to do. Flowers were rather girly…

            “Yeah and I love you,” Draco said walking the few steps to Harry and kissing him.

            During the kiss, Harry tugged Draco’s pants down, revealing Draco’s glorious hardening cock. Harry palmed it and Draco stepped out of the pants, before pushing Harry back against the bed. Draco hovered over Harry’s body, taking a bit more initiative than he normally did, and trailing first his hands and then his mouth down Harry’s body. Draco’s hands traveled all of the way down to Harry’s cock, but Draco’s mouth stopped at Harry’s nipples, which Draco sucked gently. Harry enjoyed the sensation, but it wasn’t what he wanted, so he flipped Draco onto his back, straddling his husband.

            Draco motioned towards the nightstand, where the elves had left the girls only potion. Harry drank it, then found his wand, and cast his three preparatory spells. Draco’s fingers found Harry’s arse, stretching Harry’s hole until Draco’s entire fist was inside the hot fleshy canal. Draco’s hand was large and felt good inside Harry’s greedy hole, but it felt different from Draco’s cock. Draco’s cock was hard, but it also had the soft feel of flesh and gave in a way that fingers just didn’t. He wanted to feel the real thing, so he reached down to Draco’s cock, angling it up towards his hole. Draco must’ve gotten the message, because seconds later Draco removed his hand and helped slide that massive cock inside Harry’s body.

            Harry only got part of the head of Draco’s cock inside his anus before it popped out. He tried again, but again the head seemed to get stuck before the ridge was passed his sphincter, so he grabbed his wand and like the previously times they’d had sex, he cast the charm to make entry easier. When he lowered himself onto Draco’s cock the next time, the head went in a little further. He had to bounce up and down on the head a bit, careful not to move too much for fear the cock would pop out again, but then the ridge pushed past his sphincter and Draco was in.

            Harry felt stretched to capacity and he clenched his eyes shut against the intrusion while he tried to calm down. Draco waited for him and rubbed soothing circles on his back until he relaxed and started pushing down again. Harry found himself slipping down faster onto Draco’s shaft than he had before. This time when he pushed, an entire inch entered him at a time, before he pulled up a centimeter and descended down another inch.

            Harry stopped again at about the three quarters mark. Draco was panting for breath with his heart pounding in his chest from Harry’s rapid decent, so he didn’t say anything during the five minutes that it took Harry to adjust to having Draco’s dick in contact with Harry’s prostate. But when Harry did start moving again, he did so equally in the up direction as he did in the down direction, which displeased Draco. Draco wanted Harry further down on his dick, so he grabbed Harry’s hips and pulled Harry down with each downward thrust.

            When Harry moved, Draco’s cock went further inside, pushing Draco’s cock head more firmly against his prostate, sending bolts of pleasure racing up his spine and causing him to moan.

            “That’s it. Just um, spread your legs wider, to open your hole up more,” Draco encouraged.

            Harry thought his legs were already spread wide open. He was kneeling over Draco’s body with his knees spread about one hundred degrees apart, but now he tried opening up his legs even wider, increasing the angle to one hundred twenty degrees, where the stretch started to hurt. Then Draco pulled down on Harry’s hips and Harry’s arse sunk down another inch and Harry’s eyes rolled back in his head as the wide ridge of Draco’s cock head surged past Harry’s prostate, sending intense bolts of ecstasy coursing through Harry’s system, making him cum suddenly.

            Draco rocked up into Harry as Harry rode out his orgasm. When he was spent, Harry laid his head down in the crook of Draco’s neck, while Draco continued thrusting up in a fast rhythm. It was only a few minutes before Draco’s thrust grew frantic and he spilled his load inside Harry’s tight arse. Harry, exhausted from sex, fell asleep first, followed shortly after by Draco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I finally finished it! What did you think of the no funeral twist?  
> I’ve gone home to California for the holidays and have been super busy at my brother’s ranch. He needs lots of help, especially because his wife is expecting the baby, which means I have less time for writing.  
> Please Review!


	29. Chapter29

            Lucius, Narcissa, and Druella left first thing Saturday morning to prepare for Bellatrix’s funeral. Sure they had announced that it would be yesterday, but they knew Harry would have a problem with it, so they decided the best time to have the funeral was when Harry was away attending the Weasley boy’s funeral. They had lied to Draco, leading him to believe that the funeral was canceled. Draco passed the message along to Harry and hopefully Harry wouldn’t bother them today.

            Harry had breakfast with Draco and Andy and then went to get dressed for Fred’s funeral. He was staring at his clothes that the elves had all neatly folded in the dresser and realized that he didn’t have anything appropriate for a funeral. He had his dress robes hanging up in the closet; both his robes from the Yule Ball and from when he married Draco, but neither set seemed appropriate for a funeral. The ones from the Yule Ball were at least black, but they just weren’t somber enough.

            Harry went next door to the nursery, where Draco was sorting through old clothes of Sev and Scorp’s. A new dresser had arrived for Teddy that morning and it needed clothes to fill it. All Teddy had come with was one nappy bag full of clothes and a package of disposable nappies. It wasn’t nearly enough and had only lasted this long because the house elves did laundry every day. But now that they were adopting Teddy and he was to be living with them, Narcissa had ordered another dresser and Draco was filling it with Sev and Scorp’s hand-me-downs. Malfoys didn’t normally wear hand-me-downs, but Teddy was so close in age that Draco still had all the twins’ old clothes and there were plenty of said clothes, because there were two babies. Some of the clothes were stained or ratty, but there were enough that were in good condition that Teddy would have an entire wardrobe of practically new hand-me-downs.

            “Draco, I don’t have anything to wear for the funeral today,” Harry said.

            “You can borrow one of my dress robes. I assume you want something somber and black?” Draco asked.

            “Yes, please. Do you have anything like that?”

            “Yeah, I have robes from both of my grandfathers’ and from my grandmother’s funerals, but I was younger then and you’d have to adjust them. Although, I think the robes I wore when my father was sentenced to life in Azkaban should work,” Draco said getting up off of the floor. “Just let me put the boys into their stationary entertainers so they don’t get into trouble.”

            Harry saw Sev crawling towards him and the door, so he bent down and picked his son up, depositing him in the blue stationary entertainer while Draco put Scorp in the green one. Teddy was in the blue bouncer and all three boys were accounted for. They left the doors open so that they would be able to hear and went back to Draco’s room. Draco pulled a plain but classy set of black dress robes out of his closet and Harry tried them on. They were just a tad too long, barely hitting the floor, but once Harry had his dress shoes on, the robes no longer dragged.

            “Perfect, but we really must take you shopping soon,” Draco said.

            “What about you? You wear the same plain robes every day,” Harry replied.

            “These are my paternity robes you troll; they’re the only ones I can wear while I’m breast feeding.”

            “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…”

            “It’s okay, I know. Now get dressed; I’m going back to the nursery.”

            Harry just had to tie his shoes and cast a grooming charm on his hair and he was done. Harry, Andy, and Teddy left through the floo to the Burrow and joined the crowd of arriving guests. To Harry, it seemed to be a very morbid version of the arrangements the Weasley had made for Bill and Fleur’s wedding. All the same red headed people were there, just wearing black instead of bright colors. And the same chairs, tables, and tents were up in the yard, just black instead of white.

            Hermione noticed Harry and led Ron, Neville, Ginny, and Luna over to them. They exchanged greeting and hugs and the girls were all over Teddy. While Ginny and Luna took turns holding Teddy, Andy saw someone she knew and went off to talk to her old acquaintance.

            Ginny went to pass Teddy to Ron, but Harry stopped her saying, “Um, Ron’s not supposed to be holding Teddy; Draco’s orders.” That wasn’t entirely true, because Harry had suggested the Ron-ban to placate Draco, but he didn’t want to get into that and preferred to put the blame on his husband.

            “Since when does the slimy git get to say I can’t hold Lupin’s baby?” Ron asked indignantly as Harry took Teddy from Ginny and handed the baby over to Neville.

            “Since Draco and I are adopting Teddy. Draco will be Teddy’s father soon and he’d rather not have another crippled child. We were just at St. Mungo’s with Scorpius Thursday,” Harry replied.

            “Oh what’s wrong with him?” Luna asked.

            “How did it go?” Hermione asked.

            “Scorpius has a malformed leg, thanks to Ron. The healer was able to straighten it out, but it’s still thin and weak and he wasn’t too optimistic about being able to fix it,” Harry answered.

            “That’s awful,” Neville said.

            “I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a swimmering fairy; they’re good luck in repairing sever physical injuries,” Luna said.

            “Wait, is this Ron’s fault, because of that time he hit Draco in the stomach and Draco was injured really bad?” Ginny asked. “That would make sense if Draco was already pregnant back then, but according to the papers, he wasn’t pregnant until your wedding night, which was the night before Dumbledore’s death. That would mean that Draco wasn’t pregnant when Ron hit him.”

            Harry knew that Draco wanted everyone to think that they hadn’t gotten pregnant until their wedding night, but he also found it hard to lie to his friends, especially because they knew so much of the truth. “Listen, you can’t tell anyone what you suspect and I can’t confirm anything. Ron caused Scorpius’ injury; can we just leave it at that?” Harry asked pleadingly.

            “Of course, Harry,” Luna answered.

            “Yeah, sure,” Neville agreed, passing Teddy back to Harry.

            “I guess, but I can’t believe my oaf of a brother was stupid enough to hit a pregnant man in the stomach,” Ginny said.

            “Oi, I didn’t know!” Ron defended himself.

            “Can we all just drop it?” Harry asked.

            “Yes, let’s drop it. We are all here to celebrate Fred’s life,” Hermione said.

            “Harry, can I get Teddy? I want to show my grandson off a bit,” Andy said, coming back over.

            “Sure Andy,” Harry said, passing Teddy over to Andy.

            “I need to go help set off the Peruvian Instant Darkness powder; you’ll want to take your seats beforehand, especially with the baby and all,” Ron said.

            “Oh, did Dad call us over? I must’ve missed it,” Ginny said.

            “Will do. Thank you Ronald,” Andy said.

            Ron and Ginny left and the rest of them made their way over to the black chairs. It wasn’t long before the Weasley released the Instant Darkness powder, signaling the start of the show. And it was a show, because it was filled with whiz-bangs, explosions, loud rock music, and everything else Fred had loved in his life. The Weasley children even took to broom and flew over the heads of the audience doing various stunts. None of the stunts were worthy of the Quidditch World Cup, but still, Fred would’ve loved it.

            Teddy started crying when the explosions went off. Andy got him to quiet down for a bit, but when Teddy started fussing again, she pulled out a bottle. She fed and burped Teddy while she listened to the speeches.

            Molly and Arthur each got up and said a few words about their son, but it was George who gave the most heart wrenching speech. You could just tell that he was missing the other half of himself. He would go on with the joke shop and continue to play pranks on his family, but he was broken.

            After the eulogies and stories about Fred from the various people who knew him, the Weasleys invited everyone to stay for a late lunch and a celebration of Fred’s life. Harry, Hermione, Andy, and Teddy made their way over to the covered tables and found a nice shaded spot to sit.

            “I wish we had one of those travel seats to put Teddy in, so we could set him down now that he’s asleep,” Harry said.

            “Like the muggles use in a car?” Andy asked.

            “Yeah,” Harry replied.

            “I thought for sure Draco would have two of them for the twins; we had them back in the room of requirement,” Hermione said.

            “Yeah, he must have two, but I didn’t even think to ask. The twins might still be using them; perhaps we should get Teddy his own,” Harry replied.

            “It is best to have one for each; you never know when you’ll need them,” Hermione replied.

            “Yeah,” Harry agreed. “But for now I think I’ll apparate home and get a bouncer. He can sleep and play in a bouncer.”

            “Good idea,” Andy replied.

            Harry apparated back to the Villa. Draco and the twins must’ve already gone upstairs for their nap, because they weren’t in the drawing room. Harry, feeling paranoid, went upstairs to check and sure enough the twins were in their cribs and Draco was in his bed. Satisfied, Harry took the blue bouncer and apparated back to the Weasleys. He set the bouncer down in the shade for Teddy. Then they ate lunch and mingled with the other guests.

            Harry didn’t get much mingling done before he realized that everyone wanted to talk to him about the war, his secret life with Draco, and everything else under the sun, except about Fred. Right about when the line of people started forming to talk to him, he decided to go home early. And Teddy was up from his nap, so Andy agreed to go home too.

            Once back at the Villa, Harry took Teddy upstairs to change his nappy in the nursery. Sev and Scorp were still napping in their cribs, so he went back downstairs and talked to Andy.

            Andy seemed to have an endless supply of stories about Tonks and Ted, but eventually the subject changed and she told Harry that she was planning on going back to her house this week to pack up her things. Narcissa had invited her to stay in Druella’s room now that the old woman had gone back to her house. Eventually Andy would move into the guesthouse at the Manor, but according to Lucius, the Manor’s guesthouse sustained the most damage and wouldn’t be livable for quite some time. But at least Lucius and Narcissa were nice enough to offer to rent her their guesthouse at a reasonable price.

            “That’s great that you’ll be close by,” Harry replied and then tried to figure a good way to bring up the subject of changing Teddy’s name. He finally decided he just had to come out with it already, so when Andy finished telling him about what a wonderful town Wiltshire was, he decided to go for it. “Um, Draco and I were considered changing Teddy’s name when we adopt him. I wanted to know how you feel about that.”

            “Well that depends on what you change it to. Are we just talking about changing his last name to Malfoy?” Andy asked.

            “That and he wanted to add a second middle name; Cygnus, after your father. He wants Teddy to have at least one celestial name to fit in with the twins and he said your father was a wonderful man. He said that Cygnus tried to keep your mum from tossing you out of the family and still maintained contact with you after everyone else refused.” Harry was still on the ropes about changing Teddy’s name, but he’d promised Draco he’d at least ask Andy about it. And if Andy put her foot down, then Harry wouldn’t have to stand up to Draco.

            “That’s true; my father was a good man and he still loved me right up until the end. Ted and I struggled a lot when we first got married, since we didn’t have the money or the resources I would’ve been given if I’d married a pureblood. Don’t tell my mother, but my father used to secretly give me money. He never gave me much at once, but it was at least a galleon every month and that little bit really helped us get by.”

            “That’s great. Did he ever get to meet Tonks?”

            “Oh yes, he loved Dora. When I had Dora, he smuggled the Black family nursery furniture to me. No one else had a baby at the time, so they didn’t notice that it was missing.”

            “That’s great. So what do you think of changing Teddy’s name?”

            “I don’t know. Dora always liked my father; he always gave her candies when he saw her.”

            Andy told Harry a few stories about Cygnus Black and Tonks, but never said anything firm on whether or not she would be alright with adding a second middle name. Then Draco and the twins woke up from their naps and came downstairs. Lucius and Narcissa came home just in time for dinner. And in accordance with their ruse, they left Druella at her own house after the funeral.

            Bellatrix’s funeral contained very few Death Eaters, because there were so few left. Most of them were dead or had already been captured by the Aurors, but there were plenty of Death Eater supporters and family members of Death Eaters. Narcissa had gotten up and given a beautiful speech about how it wasn’t just her sister Bella they were here to mourn, but rather _all_ of their fallen Death Eater loved ones. Every one of them had lost someone and since they had lost the war, it wasn’t politically prudent to be seen throwing elaborate funerals for each and every lost loved one, so they were having just this one funeral in secret for all of them.

            And it was also a funeral to mourn the passing of their pureblooded ideals, because in this new post-war era, they would have to blend in and be seen accepting muggleborns or they would never regain their lost standing. When they had recovered and had a firm foothold in the Ministry, they would regroup and try again to push the impure out, but for now it was important for them to go along with the flow.

            But neither Lucius nor Narcissa mentioned any of this at dinner, instead telling of how Druella’s doxies had attacked them. Harry and Andy remained none the wiser. Draco suspected, but had learned a long time ago not to question his parents about things he didn’t want to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more twist. You didn’t think the Slytherins didn’t have something up their sleeves, did you?


	30. Chapter30

            Sunday morning Scorpius said, “Fa fa fa fa,” as he stuck his fingers into Draco’s mouth to wake his father up. Then to emphasize his point, he pulled his hand out of Draco’s mouth and slapped the saliva coated appendage down onto Draco’s cheek.

            “Scorp?” Draco asked sleepily. “How did you get here?” He didn’t remember falling asleep with Scorpius in his bed. In fact, he distinctly remembered nursing Scorp on the spare bed in the nursery last night, now that his aunt had moved to his grandmother’s old room, so even if he had fallen asleep breast feeding his son, that wouldn’t account for why they were both in Draco’s bed with Harry.

            “Fa! Aaaahhh! Da ah ah fa,” Scorp said and proceeded to stick his little index finger up Draco’s nose.

            Draco choked and sputtered, removing Scorp’s finger from his persons. “Alright, I’m up, what do you want, Scorp?” Draco asked looking down at his baby. That was when he noticed that Scorpius’ other hand was on his robes above his right breast. Then Scorp made sucking noises and that confirmed it: the baby was hungry and wanted to nurse. “Just give me a second.” He sat up in bed, removed the panel from his robes and the breast pump from the one side, before letting Scorpius latch on.

            Harry was woken up by Draco’s movement. He opened his eyes to see his husband breast feeding their son and he thought it was beautiful. He sat up next to Draco, pulling his husband into his lap and resting his chin on Draco’s shoulder as he looked down at his suckling son. “What does it feel like?”

            “Like magic, but it hurts too,” Draco replied. It felt like magic to be giving life to such a wonderful child that was both his and Harry’s and it was a relieving sensation for the milk to leave his full chest, but sometimes Scorpius bit down too hard and it hurt.

            “Oh, I’m sorry it hurts.”

            “Don’t be; I’ve gotten used to it and I barely notice anymore.”

            “Good.”

            “Do you know how Scorp got into bed with us?” Draco asked.

            “No, I’d assumed you brought him; he wasn’t here when I went to sleep.”

            “He was when I woke up, but I know I didn’t bring him in here.”

            “Must be magic.”

            “Yeah, probably. Can you go get Sev and feed him a bottle?”

            “Yeah,” Harry replied, getting up. He retrieved Sev fand came back into Draco’s bedroom to feed him.

            Today they were to work on the Manor, so later than morning Harry gave the secret to the Manor to Draco, Narcissa, and Andy. Harry and Lucius apparated over to the Manor carrying baby supplies, while Draco, Narcissa, and Andy each flooed over with a baby. The second floor landing from the stairs let out onto an L-shaped sitting room where they set the babies up.

            The Manor was repaired and warded and now they just needed to make it livable again. Draco’s bag with an undetectable extension charm was there and full of shrunken furniture, which Lucius, Narcissa, and Andy were pulling out of the bag, unshrinking, and moving to the correct location inside the house.

            Harry wasn’t sure what to do, so he followed Draco into the middle bedroom, the one along the backside of the house. It was a good sized room with horrible old wallpaper on the walls. He looked around the empty room and asked, “What are we doing?”

            “This is going to be the nursery. It’s the largest room on this floor, which makes it the best choice. But it’s still far too small for three boys, so I’m going to cast a long-lasting extension charm on it. I think double in size should about do it,” Draco replied.

            “Brilliant. How long will it last for?”

            “Well typical extension charms only last a few years, but you get the endless space. The long-lasting type, on the other hand, provide no more than double the space, but can last for up to twenty years. We’ll have to move all of the furniture out and cancel the spell when the boys go off to Hogwarts, just to be on the safe side, but we should be good for eleven years.”

            “What happens if the spell breaks while people are in the room?”

            “Then the room goes back to this size and everything that was in the expanded room is shoved into a smaller space. The people could be crushed; that’s why we don’t like to use expansion charms around the house where people could get hurt.”

            “If it’s dangerous, then we shouldn’t try it. We can just take up another room for the boys; we’ll find some way to make it all fit.”

            “The larger the room becomes, the more dangerous it is. But I’m going to stick to no more than twice as large, which means the room will be safe for about twenty years and there’s virtually no risk of the charm failing before the eleven-year mark. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve a lot of practice casting extension charms, seeing as almost all of the furniture for this house is in that little bag in the sitting room.”

            “Alright, if you’re sure it’s safe, but let’s not make it any bigger than it has to be.”

            “Yeah, okay. Maybe I can make everything fit if I add a few feet to the length and width. Will you go back out into the sitting room while I cast?”

            Harry stepped back into the sitting area and looked around. He had been here once before with Dobby; well not here here, but here in the room of requirement. The room didn’t have any windows, because it was the central room on the second floor. It had a total of five doors off of it, as well as the landing for the staircase. There were two sets of stairs, one leading up to the third floor and one leading down to the first floor.

            Andy was in the sitting room, trying to figure out the best way to arrange the sofa and the loveseat in the L-shaped room. She had the loveseat to the right of the stairs, up against the wall that joined with the stairs and the sofa on the wall opposite, but there was barely a walkway in that configuration and definitely not enough room to put a coffee table in between.

            “Hey Harry, can you ask Draco if there’s a coffee table for this sitting room?” Andy asked, wishing she knew what the Manor had looked like before Draco had packed it all up and shoved it into a bag.

            Harry agreed and waited for Draco to finish expanding the nursery before asking. There was not in fact a coffee table, just two end tables to go on either side of the sofa and a third next to the love seat. Harry relayed the message to Andy, before going back into the new nursery and watching Draco work. The room did seem to be about fifty percent wider and several feet longer, but it wasn’t anywhere close to double in size, which meant it was safer. Draco was making hologram copies of the nursery furniture they had back at the villa and was placing the holograms around the room.

            Draco spent half an hour making the holograms and then another half an hour trying to figure out how to make it all fit. Finally, he settled on putting the spare bed in the back along the wall on the right side of the room, the side where the room butted up against the sitting room. The three dressers, changing table, laundry hamper, nappy pail, and rocking chair were all against the left wall, which had the windows that overlooked the rear lawn and the forests beyond. There was a second rocking chair, which he was planning on asking his mother to order, up against the rear wall. In the corner between the two rocking chairs was an end table to put bottles and things on during feedings. Then in the middle of the rear wall was a bookshelf and a toy box which jutted out into the middle of the room. Up against the toy box were the three cribs, in a clump in the middle of the room. Two cribs were pushed against each other and the third crib ran long ways at the foot of the other two. The rest of the things such as the bouncers, swings, jumpers, stationary entertainers and the like, he was trying to arrange along the free wall space on the right of the room, before the spare bed. The fourth wall had the doors for the walk-in closet and the bathroom.

            “Harry, will you work on the walls? I don’t want to keep my parent’s ratty old wall paper,” Draco said. This room had been his parents’ room since as long as he could remember, because it was the largest room in the house.

            Harry stripped off the wall paper with a spell, but he didn’t know a spell to redecorate the walls, so he left it at that. Then he saw Draco working the copies of the carseats into the closet and remembered that he had wanted to get Teddy a carseat the day before while at Fred’s funeral. “Draco, I was wondering if we could stop by a store today and pick up a carseat for Teddy,” Harry said.

            “Teddy can have Sev’s infant carseat; Sev will be too big for it soon and we’ve already got the larger size ones in the storeroom at the villa,” Draco answered, levitating the hologram stroller into the closet as well.

            “Yeah, but have you noticed that everything Teddy has is passed onto him from the twins? Shouldn’t we buy him some of his own things?”

            “Yeah, he’ll have some of his own things. We already got the third dresser for him and the third crib is waiting in the storeroom for when the bedding we ordered arrives. It’s taking longer, because they have to make the Indigo fabric with the red and bronze colored sea turtles that I’m requesting. We could’ve set it up already if we’d just gone with red, but I wanted it to match the twins’ cribs. Besides, all of the stuff Teddy is getting from the twins is still in good condition. Sev only used his infant carseat once.”

            “Alright, if the carseat was only used once, then I’m sure it’s okay; I just don’t want Teddy to feel like he’s getting short-changed.”

            “Harry, the twins have to get new stuff, because they’re the oldest. What do you think’s gonna happen when our daughter is born? Are we gonna buy her all new stuff or use the perfectly good stuff we already have?”

            “I’d assume we’d buy new stuff with flowers on it instead of sea turtles.”

            “Well I don’t see the point, when girls can use things with sea turtles on them just as well as boys. Even a lot of the clothes she’ll wear will be hand-me-downs, especially in the beginning when they grow so quickly that none of the clothes have a chance to really get worn before they’re too small. And in a few years, Teddy will be the same size as the twins, so he won’t be able to fit the twin’s hand-me-downs and he’ll have to have new clothes, same as the twins. Then it’ll be our daughter wearing hand-me-downs from all three boys.”

            “Yeah, alright, just as long as Teddy gets some new things along with the hand-me-downs.”

            “Why don’t you have a baby shower for Teddy? Get all of your fans to throw you a party and give you things to celebrate his adoption?”

            “Yeah, that’s a great idea! I bet Ginny, Luna, and Hermione would have a blast with that.” He wasn’t going to invite his fans, but he could invite his friends.

            “Great, now let’s get to work painting these walls. I want tropical paradise, not old people number two,” Draco said, summoning a book on painting spells.

            Draco taught Harry how to paint the walls. Harry would paint a wall blue and dry it and then Draco would add in the details, like the sea creatures and the white crests of the waves.

            They had to stop to feed the babies and they took a break to go downstairs for lunch, but after lunch they were back upstairs and painting the next wall. There was another break to feed the babies again and then the painting was finished. After that they flooed back to the Villa to put the boys down for their nap. Draco too fell asleep, but Harry apparated back to the Manor and helped Andy, who was putting knickknacks on the shelves of the sitting room. They were mostly awards, medals, and diplomas various Malfoy ancestors had received. Then there was another shelf which they filled full of photos in old silver frames.

            Once the shelves were filled, Andy asked, “Do you know which of the bedrooms gets which set of furniture?”

            Harry did know that Draco’s old bedroom set belonged to the bedroom to the left of the nursery, and he and Andy were about to start putting those pieces of furniture in that room, when Narcissa came down from the third floor and directed them to put Draco’s old set of furniture into the third bedroom, to the right of the nursery. This room was similar to Draco’s old room, but just a bit smaller, so they set it up near to the way it had been in the room of requirement.

            There was a second bedroom set, which Narcissa directed them to put into Draco’s old bedroom, to the left of the nursery. While they were working on that, Lucius and Narcissa started on returning the desks and shelves of books and filing cabinets full of parchment scrolls to the study, which was on the second floor in the front of the house and the very left-most door from the stairs.

            The house still wasn’t finished when they left for dinner, but they had made good progress. It would take at least another day and the holograms in the nursery would need to be replaced with the real thing, but it was a start.

            What surprised Harry most about Malfoy Manor was that it wasn’t actually as big as he’d thought; sure it was old, ornate, and grandiose, but the majority of the ground floor was taken up by the drawing room. There was an entryway, a stairwell, and a study on the ground floor as well as a connected side house with the kitchen, dining room, and house elf quarters, but there were not endless expanses of space nor a surplus of rooms. The second floor had three good-sized bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom. There was a study, a fourth bathroom, and the central sitting room surrounding the staircase, but that was it for the second floor. The third floor had less living space than the lower two floors and contained a master bedroom on one side, a study on the other side, and a long, but somewhat thin landing that linked the two and contained the stairs. There were attics above that and a guesthouse, but it was not a mansion and there were not wings or suites of rooms. Thus it didn’t take endless amounts of time to unshrink and levitate the furniture into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of having a baby shower for Teddy idea? Please Review!


	31. Chapter31

            Monday the entire Malfoy family went to see the Malfoy lawyer, Mr. Shafiq, who had finish putting together Teddy’s adoption papers. They flooed directly into his office, so that the press wouldn’t catch them out and about with the babies. The lawyer went over the terms of the adoption, which stated that Teddy would be Draco and Harry’s son and have all the rights that that entailed, but that Andy would have visitation rights. Draco and Harry would be financially responsible for Teddy and get only a tiny fraction of Tonks’ life insurance money, while Andy would use the majority of that money to repay debts.

            It took a few hours to go through all of the details and hammer out a few of the finer points such as changing Teddy’s last name to Malfoy, but then they were finished and Andy, Draco, and Harry all signed. In the end, Harry had wanted to leave Teddy’s first and middle names as they were given to him by Tonks, without adding in a second middle name. Draco wasn’t happy about it, but Harry had spoken so passionately about honoring Tonks and Remus’ memory that he’d caved.

            Once everyone was in agreement and the documents were signed, Mr. Shafiq promised to file the papers and arrange a court date to have the adoption finalized. It would take another month, even if they had it rushed, but at least the process was started.

            The Malfoys went back to the Villa and celebrated, with Lucius breaking out a bottle of champagne and Mipsy bringing Draco, Harry, and the twins grape juice. After the toast, Draco sat down on the sofa and nursed Teddy for the first time. It seemed like the simplest thing in the world, but it also felt so right, because Teddy really was Draco’s baby now.

            After Draco nursed and burped Teddy, he nursed Scorpius and fed Sev a bottle, while Harry wrote a few owls informing his friends of the good news. In the letters he sent to Hermione and Ginny, he mentioned his desire to have a baby shower for Teddy to celebrate Teddy becoming his son.

            After lunch Harry got an owl back from Molly informing him that she, Hermione, and Ginny had agreed to throw Harry a baby shower and they just needed a list of what types of things Teddy needed so they could tell people what to get. And so Draco and Harry sat down with a piece of parchment and made their list. Teddy definitely needed a highchair and bath-seat, as well as blankets and larger sized clothes. Since Sev still used his swing sometimes and it was getting a bit worn out, they asked for a new swing too. And it wouldn’t hurt to have more toys.

            Then there was a debate over whether or not they needed another stroller and if so, which kind and how many babies it should seat. They already had a twin stroller, so they only needed a single stroller for Teddy. But if one person was alone with all three babies, they couldn’t push the twin stroller and a single stroller; for that it’d be better to have a triplet stroller. But then how often did they plan on leaving all three babies with one person? Harry certainly couldn’t handle three at a time. Maybe Draco could manage it, but Draco said he’d prefer to put Teddy in a carrier on his chest and push the twins in their stroller if it came to that, so the triplet stroller really wasn’t needed. And if Harry was to be pregnant soon, then they might as well get another twin stroller so that their daughter would have a place to sit too. But then their boys would be getting older and Sev might not need a stroller by then.

            It wasn’t until they pulled out the baby catalogue and came across a stroller designed to accommodate two children of varying ages that they knew what they wanted. There was a typical seat in the front that an infant carrier could be attached to and a second parent-facing seat in the rear. The rear seat could detach to reveal a bench seat for a toddler or a standing platform for an active older child. It looked perfect for their growing family, so they added it to their list and then sent the list off to Mrs. Weasley.

            After that Draco and the twins took their nap and Harry went over to the Manor to help Lucius finish setting the place up. He ended up putting together the library on the first floor, unshrinking box after box of books and then levitating the books onto the shelves. He was only halfway through the books when Lucius came in and wanted to work on putting up the last of the wards, which they just barely finished in time for dinner.

            Tuesdays morning Harry spent helping Draco with the babies. In the afternoon he once again went to the Manor and this time he finished putting away the books in the library, while Lucius did the china in the dining room. Then it was back to the Villa for dinner.

            Wednesday Molly sent Harry an owl informing him that the baby shower would be a week from Saturday. Ron and all of the Weasley men would absolutely not be there for the day, so Draco didn’t have anything to worry about. That led to a small argument between Harry and Draco where Draco insisted that the Weasley home was not a safe place to take children, even if all the Weasleys were gone from it and Harry begged Draco to go and let the children go too. They finally settled on the compromise of asking Mrs. Weasley to throw the baby shower at Grimmauld Place. Grimmauld Place was still under the fidelius charm, but most of the people being invited already knew the secret and the rest were trustworthy enough to be told, especially because they weren’t living there.

            All day Thursday and Friday morning were a blur of activity as they made the final preparations for Remus and Tonks’ funeral. They were having it in London at a venue that the Ministry owned and made available for all Ministry personnel. There were so many funerals of Ministry personnel right now that this chapel was exceedingly busy and was booked for two funerals a day on weekdays and four a day on weekends. They had the Friday afternoon timeslot, which was one of the better ones.

            The entire Malfoy family went to the chapel to help set up. Teddy was placed in Sev’s old bouncer and Sev and Scorp were in their jumpers on the stage while the adults levitated flowers into the vases, put up pictures of Remus and Tonks, and placed tissues and programs by the door. And then there was the music to set up and people who would be speaking to talk to.

            The first sign that this funeral was going to be well attended came minutes after they started setting up. It was still an hour before the funeral was to start and people were already walking in the door. Andy greeted the strangers, the first batch having known Tonks from Hogwarts. They were quickly followed by another batch who had been taught by Remus at Hogwarts. Then the following group worked at the Ministry with Tonks and their presence started Scorpius off screaming.

            Draco ran to his baby, picking Scorpius up and calming him down, while Andy immediately pushed the Aurors back out the door. Then the other guests were pushed out as well, so that they could finish setting up. After that they kept the doors closed and Andy stayed outside to explain to the Aurors what they had done wrong and greet the new arrivals, who were still arriving in droves. When the Weasleys arrived, Andy let the Hermione, Ginny, and Ron through and asked the other Weasleys to help her guard the door. The Aurors also helped with crowd control and together they kept everyone else outside.

            Draco looked up to see Ron Weasley walking towards them. “What is he doing here?” He asked of Harry.

            “It’s Remus and Tonks’ funeral; he knew them,” Harry replied.

            “Yeah, but I’m here and so are the babies. You said you wouldn’t let him near them.”

            “But Draco, Ron has the right to mourn too. It’s a huge chapel; surely it’ll be alright if he stays on the other side.”

            Draco wasn’t happy with the arrangement, but Ron backed up and promised to stay away, appeasing Draco somewhat. There was plenty to do on the other side of the chapel to keep Ron well separated from Draco and the kids. The guests kept pouring in and Ron went outside to help Andy and the other Weasleys greet them.

            There was a group of mourners that had worked with Remus in Lithuania, another who met him in Croatia, and a third who were werewolves who had met him in Denmark. There were people who had fought alongside Remus and Tonks in the final battle, people who had fought alongside Remus in earlier battles, and people who had fought alongside Tonks before she had been pregnant. There were people Tonks had saved through her work as an Auror, people who knew people who Tonks had save, and people who had witnessed Tonks’ acts of heroism. There were people who had gone to school with Remus and Harry’s parents. There was the lady who sold coffee to Tonks every morning at the Ministry and there was Remus’ old next door neighbor. There were everyone and anyone who was a werewolf, knew a werewolf, or were just vaguely interested in werewolf rights. There was even a group of three vampires, Firenze the Centaur, and a man who was half-troll by the look of him and full troll by the smell.

            Fifteen minutes before the funeral was to start, there was a line wrapped around the building of people waiting to get in. Hermione went outside to scope out the crowd and found Ron, before reporting back to Harry, while Harry was busy duplicating programs to hand out to all of the extra guests; they had only planned on a hundred or less attendees and were not prepared for a full house. Draco was by his side multiplying the tissues to go with the programs.

            “It looks like word got out that you and the kids would be at this funeral,” Hermione said.

            “Well it’s the first time your kids have been out in public and everyone wants to get a look at them. I’ve seen dozens of people with their cameras and the people in the very front of the line said they snapped a few pictures of them before the Aurors got them all kicked out,” Ron said. It was his first time seeing Harry’s twins in person, although they were over twenty feet away, all the way at the back of the stage and he could barely see them. Still, he was in the same room with Draco and Harry’s babies and he didn’t want to blow it.

            “Draco, perhaps you ought to take the boys home; there are too many people for Scorpius for sure. I wanted Teddy to be here, but it’s naptime anyway and he’s too young to know what’s going on. We’ll record it for him instead,” Harry said.

            “I bet this is Weasley’s fault. He probably let it slip that you’d be here,” Draco said.

            “I _did_ not!” Ron protested.

            “This funeral was unannounced, so how do you suppose they found out?” Draco asked.

            “Probably from the Ministry; Tonks _was_ an Auror after all,” Ron replied.

            “Speaking of the Ministry, I think that everyone who works for the Ministry, knows someone who works for the Ministry, or has ever even _been_ to the Ministry, is here,” Hermione said.

            “Yeah, I got it; I’ll go,” Draco said abandoning his pile of tissues and heading towards the children.

            “Can you two handle this for me? I’ve got to help Draco get the kids home,” Harry said.

            Ron and Hermione agreed and set to work duplicating the programs and multiplying the tissues, while Draco packed Sev and Scorp into their stroller. Draco shrunk the two jumpers and the bouncer and shoved the three items into the basket of the stroller, while Harry held Teddy. Then they all disappeared through the nearest fireplace. Harry helped Draco and the boys get upstairs, making sure Draco was okay, which he was, before apparating back to the funeral.

            While Harry was gone, the doors had been opened and the people started filing in. He could see there was still a swarm of people at the doors waiting to get in, although most of the seats were now taken. The time for the funeral to start came and went with the crowd still filing in, squeezing into every last seat and standing in the aisle ways. Even with the aisles blocked, he could still see a swarm of witches and wizards passed the doors, waiting to get in. They never did get everybody inside, but they left the doors open and the sonorous carried the voices of the speakers outside. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Andy, and Harry all got up and gave eulogies about how wonderful Tonks and Remus were and what a shame it was that they were dead and had left behind their newborn son. Harry knew everyone was there to hear him talk about the war, so he made sure that was one thing he absolutely did _not_ mention. This day was about Tonks and Remus and not the bloody Savior. After the eulogies, there was music and singing of ancient pureblood hymns, and Narcissa even got up and read a poem. Then at the end Harry, Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius stood up at the front next to the two opened caskets and shook hands as people came through the line to pay their last respects to people who were unsung heroes in life and in death were just an excuse to see Harry Malfoy and the elusive Malfoy children.

            Harry saw a lot of his friends there and people he knew from the Ministry or from the Order and that pleased him. However, he couldn’t help but noticed that most of the people there seemed more interested in shaking his hand than paying their last respects to Remus and Tonks. By the time it was over, he was convinced they should’ve had a closed funeral and only invited family, close friends, Order members, and the Aurors. He went back to the villa feeling disillusioned and wondering if anyone had even heard his words about two wonderful people who he had loved, or if they had spent the entire time staring at Harry Malfoy, the bloody Boy-Who-Lived. If it weren’t for the fact that Narcissa recorded the entire thing in a memory ball for Teddy to watch when he was older, he would’ve been very mad about the fact that Teddy had been run out of his own parents’ funeral by the shear mass of looky loos. At least the actual burial after dinner wasn’t open to the public and Teddy and the twins were able to be there to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more funeral out of the way. What did you think? Please review!


	32. Chapter32

            They spent Saturday at Andy’s house with a pair of bags with the extension charms. The wizards went through the house shrinking furniture and stuffing it into the bags, while the witches boxed things up.

            Because of the fire at Tonks and Remus’ house, all of their few remaining possessions were here too. Andy boxed them up for Teddy so that later, he’ll have a few things from his parents, even if it’s just Remus’ old worn cloak or Tonks’ favorite old quilt. Harry thought it’d be brilliant to put that quilt on Teddy’s bed one day. There were Remus’ and Tonks’ wedding rings as well and Harry imagined that someday he’d give them to Teddy as part of a marriage contract.

            It took all day and there were many breaks to eat and to change nappies and feed babies, but for the most part the babies entertained themselves with their toys. They brought over some house elves to help and Sev and Scorp were fascinated by the elves moving about, shrinking furniture and packing up the house. The elves even cleaned the place as they emptied it, so that it’d be easier to sell.

            They didn’t finish on Saturday, so they came back again on Sunday and finally on Sunday evening everything was shoved into the two extended bags. They grabbed the bags and the babies and went back to the Villa, leaving the house elves with instructions to tend to the garden and the lawn and paint the walls white. A fresh coat of white paint does wonders when it comes to selling a house.

            Andy moved into Druella’s bedroom until the Malfoys fixed up the guesthouse at the Manor. Of course the guesthouse was where Voldemort, Nagini, Bellatrix, and Rodolphus had stayed, so it sustained far more damage than the main house. All of the damage to the main house had been on the first floor and most of that in the drawing room. Between Lucius and the elves it was fixed in a matter of days, but the guesthouse would take much longer to repair. Lucius estimated that it would be ready by the end of the month. That was fine, because they weren’t planning on moving back to the Manor until after Severus’ funeral anyway.

            Andy spent Monday settling into Druella’s old bedroom, pulling out her clothes and putting them in the dresser. She found her photos of her and Ted and of Remus and Dora that had been on her mantel above the fireplace in the sitting room, and now she put them on her nightstand. She also pulled out Teddy’s basinet; the one Dora had had by her bedside for the two weeks after Teddy was born. It was a plain blue basinet and not nearly as nice as the ones Draco had, but it was Dora’s and she could still picture how little Teddy had been when he had last lain in it; it’d only been two weeks, but Teddy had already put on several ounces. Finally she pulled out her large box of photos and put it on top of her dresser, so she could go through it and make Teddy an album of Remus and Tonks.

            Narcissa spent Monday working on Severus’ funeral arrangements. After seeing how big Remus and Tonks’ funeral turned out, it was obvious she was going to need a bigger venue for Severus Snape’s funeral. She had already booked the largest chapel in Britain, but it wouldn’t be nearly big enough, so now she turned to an event coordinator she knew name Hestia. She wrote to Hestia about her problem and asked if Hestia would be able to help her plan something on the order of the Quidditch world cup. Not even the massive funeral Dumbledore had had at Hogwarts would be able to compare with what they’d need for Severus.

            Lucius had another meeting with Mr. Shafiq, his lawyer, and the Aurors Monday morning. It went well and the Aurors informed him that he probably wouldn’t get sent back to Azkaban and that they were having trouble coming up with charges. And because of his relationship with Harry and the fact that he’d saved the life of Scorpius and had helped Harry win the war, the Ministry was willing to overlook his passed misdeeds. They were still going to watch him and warned that if he put so much as one toe out of line, he would be before the Wizengamot faster than an elf with a mop. Still, all things considered, it was very good news and allowed Lucius to focus more on getting the Malfoy finances in order.

            Since the deal with the muggles to import muggle jeans was going through, Lucius set the guesthouse of the villa up with worktables, so that the Malfoy family house elves could begin modifying the jeans as soon as they got their first shipment. The labels had to be removed and Malfoy brand labels added, to satisfy the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, so that the jeans were no longer muggle artifacts, but house elf-modified Malfoy artifacts.

            The jeans would be soaked overnight in a standard stain preventative potion and charmed to be long lasting. Then because Draco insisted there was a trend to wear these jeans without pants underneath, the fronts of some of the jeans would get a wizard-space charm and a softening and cushioning charm, so that Peverell wizards wouldn’t need to wear pants. Then there was the children’s jeans, which needed an automatic resizing charm so that they would grow or shrink up to one size larger or smaller than the original size. And finally, for the witches, the jeans would have a mild wizard-space charm added to the front waistband, to hide the unsightly rolls witches were always complaining about.

            Once the jeans were ready, Lucius planned on getting them into every wizarding clothing store in Britain and eventually all of Europe, and possibly the world. Malfoys didn’t think small after all. Maybe the Malfoys would even buy the failing Ravensdale Family Wizarding Store, which was going out of business now that the Ravensdale family was almost completely decimated. They could use it to sell their muggle imports; especially because his Monday afternoon meeting with a vitamin manufacturer went so well.

            The vitamins wouldn’t even have to be modified. They just had to get them on the shelves at the apothecaries and convince the healers at St. Mungo’s to recommend them for their pregnant and breast feeding patients. And since people were either stupid or lazy, he was having the elves make stickers to slap on the bottles that read, “Recommend for Witches to Maintain Health During Pregnancy and Breast Feeding.” Once they were on the shelves, Draco would reveal to the press that he was using these vitamin products; that with a few well-placed wireless advertisements and the vitamins would fly off the shelf during the post-war baby boom.

            The third muggle product Lucius wanted to import was also something for the post-war baby boom. His grandsons really did love those muggle soothers and with the homing charm Draco had added, they were a wonderful sucking toy for newborns and even older babies still loved them. But importing soothers would have to wait until the first two muggle products got off of the ground. It could wait another nine months, because it’d be that long until the baby boom would start producing the actual babies.

            Draco and Harry spent most of Monday watching the babies. Draco took an hour out in the morning to respond to an owl from the Prophet asking for another interview. He didn’t really want to go into Prophet Headquarters for it, so he agreed to answer several questions via owl.

            While Draco was writing, Teddy was pooping, so Harry went upstairs with Teddy for a nappy change. He pulled off the nappy and the black and yellow nub that had been attached to Teddy’s belly button fell off. It looked red and sore underneath and he worried that maybe it wasn’t ready yet and had fallen off too soon. “Draco!” Harry called, placing the nub on the side of the changing table and beginning to wipe the poo off of Teddy’s bum. He’d gotten rather good at this, since Draco made him change all of the poopy nappies when he was home. He held Teddy’s little legs up and thoroughly wiped the little bottom clean.

            “Harry, what happened?” Draco called, running into the room, having left Sev and Scorp downstairs in their jumpers.

            “Teddy’s belly button thing fell off. It looks all red and raw, what should we do?” Harry asked, still wiping.

            Draco looked over Harry’s shoulder at Teddy’s belly button. “It looks fine. He’s a month old now, so it’s time for it to fall off anyways.”

            “Are you sure? It looks awfully red.”

            “I’m sure; Sev and Scorp’s looked the same, but if you’re really concerned, we can put some petroleum jelly on it,” Draco said opening up a drawer in the changing table and getting out the petroleum jelly and a Q-tip to apply it with.

            “Yeah, that’d be great.” Harry was finally done with the wiping part and putting a new nappy on Teddy’s bum. He took the Q-tip and petroleum jelly from Draco, spreading just a bit over the red belly button. He pulled Teddy’s onesie back down and began to fasten the snaps on it. “You know, Teddy’s really grown a lot since we got him.” When the last snap was done, he pulled down the nightgown and picked Teddy back up.

            “Yeah, he has. If you give me the nub I’ll put it in his baby book,” Draco replied.

            “Oh yeah, here,” Harry said, handing the thing over to Draco, who put it in a tiny box on a wall-shelf. “Are you making a baby book for him?”

            “I haven’t gotten one yet, but I’m saving the things to put in it, like his belly button, and I’ve been writing down his milestones… well milestone at the moment, because all I have so far is when he learned to hold his head up last week.” As he talked, they went downstairs with Teddy, since the twins were still down in the drawing room in their jumpers.

            “I didn’t know he could hold his head up. Does that mean I can stop supporting his head every time I hold him?” Harry asked, sitting down on the sofa with Teddy.

            “No, it’s best to keep holding it, because his head is still pretty heavy for his little body. But if you mess up and forget to hold it for a second, he’ll be fine.”

            They spent the rest of the morning together in the drawing room and then went into the dining room for lunch. After lunch they went upstairs to the nursery to play on the floor with Sev and Scorp and some stuffed toys and rattles. They laid Teddy on his stomach and let him practice lifting his head up to look at everyone as they played. Then it was naptime and Teddy fell asleep too, so Draco and Harry went into their bedroom and climbed into bed together.

            Draco wasn’t that tired for once and while he was lying there, it occurred to him that it’d been a week since he and Harry had last had sex, so he called Mipsy and asked her if Harry was pregnant. When Mipsy answered in the negative, he went downstairs and asked his mother to watch the boys, while they went to Grimmauld Place. His mother agreed and so he and Harry were free for a quick afternoon shag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next is Crabbe’s funeral. Please Review!


	33. Chapter33

            Draco received an owl at breakfast Tuesday morning. It wasn’t that he never received owls, because he did. He received requests for interviews and more information regarding the war, his children, and his relationship with Harry all the time. Then there was the occasional owl from his lawyer with news on Teddy’s adoption or the owl from St. Mungo’s reminding that Scorpius had a healer appointment on such and such date. There had even been letters from his friends; Pansy, Millicent, Tracey, Daphne, Theo, Blaise, and Greg had all written, but he hadn’t written back.

            So Harry had seen Draco with owls many times, but this owl was different. This owl carried a small scroll that unfurled to produce a formal looking invitation that had Draco scowling and shoving it inside his pocket before Harry could get a chance to read it. Whatever it was, he could tell it was upsetting Draco by the viscous way Draco stabbed at his pancakes.

            Harry hoped Draco would tell him what was wrong once they were alone. Andy went upstairs to work on Teddy’s photo album, Narcissa was in the study working on Severus’ funeral, and Lucius was off on business, which left Harry and Draco alone in the drawing room with the three boys. But after an hour when Draco still hadn’t told him what was wrong and still appeared to be in a foul mood, he was left with no choice but to ask. “What was that owl you received this morning?”

            Draco clenched his fists and closed his eyes as he considered how to answer that. On the one hand, he didn’t want to talk about it. On the other, it was his husband asking and this wasn’t worth lying about. He opened his eyes, looked at Harry, and then opened his mouth to speak, but the words got stuck in his throat and died on his tongue. He closed his eyes again and then decided to let Harry read the scroll himself; he pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over.

            Harry took the scroll and read. It was an invitation to Vincent Crabbe’s funeral tomorrow. There was a note on the bottom from Mrs. Toriana Crabbe and it said she knew Draco didn’t want to come, but she had to ask again for Crabbe’s sake.

            “I didn’t know Crabbe’s funeral was tomorrow. I was there when he died, you know,” Harry said.

            “She sent me an invitation last week. I threw it away and send a return owl saying I wouldn’t be going,” Draco replied.

            “Why not? He was your friend; I’ll go with you.”

            “You would seriously go with me to a Death Eater’s funeral? The funeral of someone who in his last acts was trying to kill you?”

            “Yes, if you wanted me to, I would.”

            “I’m not sure I want that; I don’t think I can face him.”

            “Why not?”

            “I encouraged him. I led him down the path he was on. I was on that path too and then I jumped ship and left him there to drown. It’s my fault he’s dead.”

            “No Draco, it’s his parents’ fault, for teaching him that blood purity was more important than human life. It’s Voldemort’s fault for starting the war and letting children fight it for him. It’s the Carrows’ fault for teaching Crabbe that dangerous dark spell and not teaching him how to control it. And it’s Crabbe’s fault for being so stupid that he killed himself in his attack on me. It wasn’t your fault; you were just his friend.”

            “It’s my fault, because I knew he was too stupid to survive on his own and I left him with those people!”

            “You had no choice; you couldn’t take him into hiding with you! You had to protect our boys.”

            “I could’ve at least written to Vince the way I wrote to Father. I could’ve told him to lay low and switch sides if the opportunity arose. I could’ve told him not to attack you; what if he had killed you too? What if Sev and Scorp never met their dad, because my best friend killed you in the room of requirement? What if you were just dead and I never knew what happened to you, because they never found your body in there, just like they never found Vince’s body?”

            “You couldn’t protect everyone Draco. If you had written to Crabbe and Voldemort won the war, everyone all around would’ve been arsed out. Crabbe would be killed for being a coward and a traitor. You and the boys would be tracked down and killed for writing such things. And do you really think Crabbe would’ve turned away from the dark with just one letter from you? With Goyle and Mr. Crabbe Death Eaters too?”

            “No, it wouldn’t’ve been enough. He was my second cousin, did you know?”

            “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

            “With Aunt Andy and Cousin Dora kicked out of the family, Vince was my closet cousin on my mother’s side. Greg and Theo are both related on my father’s side, but not as closely as Vince on mother’s side.”

            “You should go to his funeral. I’ll go with you and be there to support you. You should say goodbye.”

            “You do know that both Greg and Vince took the mark before the final battle, don’t you? Vince during the summer and Greg over the Christmas holidays.”

            “No, I didn’t know.”

            “While I was safe here at the villa with a pair of newborns, Greg was getting a skull and snake branded onto his arm, following in my footsteps. Vince took the mark for me, I know. I’d taken it and I was too sick to fight, so he took my place. It would’ve been me chasing you in the room of requirement; it should’ve been me burnt to a crisp.”

            “It’s not your fault Draco! I feel the same way about Fred and Colin and a hundred other people I saw die! Snape, Tonks, Remus, Moody, Dumbledore, Sirius, Cedric, my parents; they’re all dead, while I’m left standing here, trying to pick up the pieces and live. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

            “Sophie’s dead too; did you know?”

            “No, who’s Sophie?”

            “Sophie Roper, she was in our year in Slytherin. I wasn’t as close to her as I was with the others, but her father joined the Death Eaters. Last summer, towards the beginning of the war, the Order raided her house. No one knows what exactly happened, but there was an explosion and everybody died, including Sophie. She never even made it back to finish her seventh year.” After the babies were born, Professor Snape had updated Draco with regards to his friends.

            “That’s too bad. Innocent women and children shouldn’t have been killed.”

            “It’s not fair, is it?”

            “No, it’s not. But we have to keep going, because for whatever reason, we’re here and they’re gone. Do you think Tonks and Remus would want me to cry over them? To throw my life away pining over them? Or would they want me to be happy and love Teddy like he was my own?”

            “Most likely the latter.”

            “Do you think Crabbe and Sophie would want you to go on? To live your life to the fullest, because they can’t?”

            “No, not really. I think at this point, if Crabbe were a ghost, he’d be haunting me and trying to get me to do to myself what I did to him.”

            “I don’t think so. I think that if he was really your friend, he’d want to see you happy.”

            “And just what sort of friend am I? Greg’s in a holding cell in the Ministry.”

            “What for?”

            “For being a Death Eater. For having the mark on his arm. For following in my footsteps and not getting out in time. I haven’t even written to him. I mean I have written, but I couldn’t bear to send it. It’s still sitting in the drawer of my desk.” That was more than he’d done for his other friends, because he hadn’t even bothered writing back to the others.

            “I’ll testify for Goyle. He was never as bad as the others; his mum even saved my life in the Forbidden Forest.”

            “The Dark Lord took Greg’s father’s wand to use against you, but you destroyed it; burnt it to ashes, I heard. Greg’s mother had to go into battle, all three hundred fifty pounds of her, just to get him back. Now Greg and his father are in holding cells and waiting for their trials so they can be sent to Azkaban.”

            “Did Greg ever fight in a battle?”

            “Not that I know of, but I wasn’t exactly there.”

            “And Greg’s dad couldn’t have fought without his wand. He wasn’t at the Ministry that night with your dad. He was at the Manor with Bellatrix, but he didn’t have his wand and he never really did anything. He’s got a good chance of getting off.”

            “Yeah, I know, but still.”

            “You feel like shite because you and your dad are doing well and your friends aren’t?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Come here,” Harry said, holding his arms open for Draco. Draco scooted closer and he wrapped his arms around Draco in a tight embrace. “It’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna go to Crabbe’s funeral and pay our last respects to your friend. Then I’m gonna testify that Mrs. Goyle saved my life and that Greg and his dad didn’t really do anything. Then you can testify that Goyle was just following after you and was too stupid to realize what he was doing.”

            “You’d really testify for Greg?”

            “Yeah, I would, because it’d be the right thing to do. I was there and I know the Goyles didn’t really do anything.”

            “Pansy did; she told everyone to capture you to take you to the Dark Lord when you appeared in the Great Hall.”

            “Is she in a holding cell too?”

            “No. She never fought, never took the mark, and her parents are Death Eater supporters, not actual Death Eaters.”

            “Have you written her?”

            “No, but she wrote me. She said she was sorry and didn’t know we were married; said she never would’ve done it if she knew.”

            “There’s going to have to be a lot of forgiveness now that the war’s over. How about I start by forgiving Pansy and you start by forgiving yourself?”

            “Yeah, okay, I’ll try.”

            “Good, and we’ll go to Crabbe’s funeral tomorrow. We’ll talk to your friends and when Goyle and his dad’s trials come, will go to those too.”

            “Yeah, alright,” Draco agreed.

            And so it was settled. They spent the rest of the day taking care of their three babies and Andy and Narcissa agreed to babysit Wednesday afternoon so that they could go to Crabbe’s funeral.

            Harry had never been to the chapel where Crabbe’s funeral was held, so he and Draco had to floo to the Crabbe family home. Draco remembered this place from his childhood years of playing out on the front lawn with Vince.

            From there they walked to the nearby chapel, where the other mourners were gathered. There weren’t a lot of people there and none of them grown men. There were women, such as Mrs. Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrode, Rosier, and Parkinson. Blaise’s mother was there, but her last name had changed recently and Draco couldn’t remember it at the moment. Grandmother Druella was there too, sitting with the other old women. But the people whose presence Draco was most concerned about were his old friends: Theo, Blaise, Milli, Pansy, Tracey, and Daphne. His friends were standing in a clump and they turned as one to look at him. He froze in his step.

            “It’s alright, I’ve got your back,” Harry encouraged and they started walking again.

            Draco walked on and in a few long strides he and Harry were level with his friends, if they were still his friends, that was. “Hello,” Draco greeted.

            “You’ve some nerve showing up here,” Milli greeted him.

            “Toriana invited me and my husband,” Draco replied.

            “You didn’t show to Sophie’s funeral, so we weren’t expecting you here either,” Blaise said.

            “I didn’t know she’d died until long afterwards. I was very sick last summer,” Draco answered.

            “How is it that the Dark Lord falls and the _Malfoys_ land on top?” Pansy asked.

            “We would’ve landed on top either way. This way I get my man; the other it’d be you I’d claim gave me my children,” Draco replied. “Haven’t figured out how it is we made one with black hair and the other with green eyes, but a glamour would’ve fixed that.”

            “That’s definitely the truth; you’re the slipperiest snake in Slytherin,” Pansy replied. A smile broke out on her face and she hugged Draco. “It’s good to see you alive and well after we were so sure you’d died.”  
            “It’s good to see you too. I’d like to introduce you to my husband, Harry Malfoy,” Draco replied.

            “Hello,” Harry said, shaking Pansy Parkinson’s hand when she offered it.

            Then all of the former Slytherins in turn hugged Draco and shook Harry’s hand. The funeral started shortly after. Harry was reminded that Mrs. Crabbe wasn’t Crabbe’s birth mother when she rose to the front of the crowd and told the story of when she joined the Crabbe family, marrying Mr. Crabbe shortly after the end of the first war, when Crabbe was just under the age of two. There were songs and poems and more stories about Crabbe. Then it was over and everyone was heading outside. Draco moved to follow his friends, but Harry saw someone he needed to talk to.

            Mrs. Goyle was still sitting in a pew and seemed to be waiting; what for Harry didn’t know. There had been two brown haired girls with her before, one who looked on the younger side of Hogwarts age and one a bit younger than that, but the girls had gotten up and run outside with the other children. Harry needed to speak with Mrs. Goyle, so he pulled Draco’s arm gently and jerked his head in the direction of the obese woman sitting in the second pew on the left. “I need to tell her something,” Harry said.

            “Alright,” Draco agreed and when there was a break in the stream of people exiting the chapel, he led Harry further into the room, up to the second pew.

            “Hello Mrs. Goyle,” Draco greeted.

            “Draco, how good it is to see you,” Elizabeth Goyle replied.

            “And you as well. I’d like you to meet my husband, Harry Malfoy.”

            “We’ve met,” Elizabeth replied.

            “Mrs. Goyle, I wanted to thank you for saving my life in the forest. I know you did it for your son, but still, without you I’d be dead and Voldemort would’ve won,” Harry said.

            “Greg told me how you saved him in the room of requirement; that’s all the thanks I need. In fact, I owe you dearly for that. Greg is my only son and he means the world to me, Auror Malfoy,” Elizabeth said. It was all over the papers that Harry was an Auror now, so she thought it best to use the title to show her respect; it was either that or use Harry’s other title, Savior.

            “Draco and I are gonna testify for him and your husband when their trials come up,” Harry replied.

            “You would do that for them?” Elizabeth asked.

            “Yes, of course; I know your son didn’t start the Fiendfyre and he was just following along with Crabbe and the others. Crabbe was gonna kill me, but your son told him not to and that Voldemort wanted me alive,” Harry said.

            “He was always a sweet boy; never wanted to kill anyone,” Elizabeth said.

            Harry didn’t know how true that was, but he decided it was best to nod and agree with Mrs. Goyle, because no mother ever wanted to think her child was capable of murder.

            “I’ll testify too. I’m sure my father will as well. Father told me he was there when the Dark Lord took your husband’s wand. He never got to fight in any of the battles, because he didn’t have his wand,” Draco said.

            “You’re a good lad, Draco. And Auror Malfoy, you’re a better sort than I thought. You’ve done well with this one, Draco,” Elizabeth proclaimed.

            “Thank you,” Draco replied. “Owl me with the dates of the hearings, yeah?”

            “Yes, of course. Thank you both for doing this,” Elizabeth replied.

            “You’re welcome, Mrs. Goyle,” Harry replied.

            “Take care,” Draco said, before leading Harry outside. His friends were gathered under the shade of a large tree nearby and he and Harry joined them.

            “So is what Greg said true? Were you really there in the room of requirement when it happened?” Blaise asked Harry.

            Suddenly all the eyes of the small crowd were on Harry and everyone was quiet as they waited to hear Harry’s answer.

            Harry gulped and said, “Yeah, I was there. He set the place alight with Fiendfyre and the rest of us barely escaped with our lives.”

            “He wouldn’t be dead if you didn’t leave him there,” Tracey accused.

            “He wouldn’t be dead if he had two brain cells to rub together to know not to mess with spells he didn’t know how to control. But who we really ought to be blaming for this is the Carrows. It was Professor Amycus Carrow who taught us that spell,” Nott said.

            There were murmurs of agreement, but it was Daphne who spoke out and said, “I agree. I hope Professor Carrow gets the kiss.”

            “I met the Carrow siblings once when they came over to see my dear Aunt Bella; all I can say about them is that I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to endure a year of their teaching,” Draco added.

            After that an usher came by and handed out butterbeers to everyone, but Draco and Harry refused.

            “Come on Draco, can’t you have a butterbeer to toast to the memory of Vince?” Blaise asked.

            “No, sorry, we can’t. In fact, I’ve got a little one at home who will be up from his nap soon and can’t live without me,” Draco replied.

            “Don’t you mean you have two little ones?” Pansy asked.

            “Yes, I’ve got two, but one is perfectly happy without me; the one that takes after Harry. My little Lord Malfoy on the other hand, can’t go four hours without me,” Draco said.

            “Well don’t be a stranger Draco; come by sometime,” Pansy replied.

            “Yes, do stop by for a visit. Now that Father’s dead, I’ve got the place all to myself,” Nott said.

            “Look at us: eight of us here and only two fathers left to go around. I just hope we have better sense than they did,” Draco said.

            “Your father hardly counts Draco; he’s only out because of you and you’re still in charge of things, now that you’re Lord Malfoy,” Nott replied.

            “Yes, I’m afraid it’s just Pansy who’s still under the thumb of her dear old father. But then she really should count herself lucky he’s so old, or he’d have been on the battlefield with all the rest of our brainless parents,” Daphne said.

            They all laughed, Draco promised to keep in touch, and Harry and Draco apparated back to the Villa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that that’s resolved, Draco’s friends will be stopping by on occasion. Up next the rivalry between Draco and Ron will escalate; things need to get worse before they can get better. Please Review!


	34. Chapter34

            Thursday morning the Prophet ran a story about Harry and Draco attending Vincent Crabbe’s funeral. Someone had taken pictures of the couple at the funeral and there was one of the two of them surrounded by Draco’s friends that made the front page. The story didn’t surprise Draco one bit, after all, Harry, Andy, and Teddy at Fred Weasley’s funeral had made the front page and their entire family before Remus and Tonks’ funeral had also made the front page. Harry Malfoy was big news these days and it seemed anytime he went out in public was a front page story.

            The story did surprise Ron and Hermione, however, because they hadn’t been aware Harry was planning on going to Crabbe’s funeral. They didn’t even know that it had been scheduled for Wednesday. Instead they had been at the funeral of Colin Creevey, comforting Colin’s brother Dennis and offering their condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Creevey. Colin’s funeral hadn’t made the front page. Ron looked through the entire paper and there wasn’t one mention of Colin. The front page story was the Crabbe funeral. There were a dozen other stories about Harry and Draco and a few of the reprints of Draco holding a screaming Scorpius, while Harry stood by next to Severus and Teddy at Remus and Tonks’ funeral. It was probably taken by someone in the first two groups of guests to arrive, when they were being kicked out. The shots weren’t very good, but it seemed as if all people wanted to see of the funeral was those first few minutes when Draco and the three babies were there; that and Harry’s speech.

            It irked Ron that Draco was getting so much publicity. Here Draco was, a Death Eater who had hidden away in France for the duration of the war, and he was getting all of the attention. People thought Draco was a hero for deceiving Voldemort and for giving Harry his wand; it had been Draco’s wand Harry was using when Harry defeated Voldemort after all. But Ron, who had stuck by Harry’s side, destroyed actual horcruxes, and risked his life in battle; well people barely even knew he’d played a part in the war at all.

            It was Draco’s fault people didn’t know more about Ron’s efforts during the war; it was Draco who gave the interviews for Harry that never once mentioned Ron. Ron had given an interview straight away after the war and he’d certainly mentioned himself. Hermione, Neville, Luna, Dean, and Professor McGonagall had all mentioned him too and said he was right by Harry’s side through it all, which he was, except for when he wasn’t. But Harry never said anything and Draco, who spoke for Harry, never confirmed the accounts of Ron by Harry’s side. The world followed Draco’s lead and ignored Ron too.

            By now Ron was getting rather sick of the Slytherin prat. He had barely seen Draco at Remus and Tonks’ funeral, but they didn’t need to see each other to get on each other’s nerves. Draco had sent word with Harry that he wasn’t to hold Teddy at Fred’s funeral. Draco wouldn’t even let Harry bring Harry’s two children to the Burrow when his mum and his little sister were always on about how they wanted to meet Harry’s babies and how cute the babies were. And well, it was Draco who had sent the pictures that emphasized how awful the little black haired baby’s leg looked and made him look like a right arse for hitting Draco way back then, even though he hadn’t known Draco was pregnant.

            And so on Thursday, Ron gave an interview with the Daily Prophet and did something about all of those things that were bothering him. He mentioned his role in defeating Voldemort. He made sure to mention the fact that he and everyone else in his family were in the Order and had supported Harry all along. He mentioned the months on end he’d spent off with Harry hunting horcruxes. How he’d stabbed the locket with the sword and gone into the Chamber of Secrets to retrieve the basilisk fangs that had been used to destroy the cup. And he even mentioned what a prat Draco was, that Draco ran away from Harry, and that Harry didn’t even know where Draco and the babies were during the war. And he made sure to clear up the confusion about Lucius, Ginny, and the diary that Draco had started in Draco’s first interview when Draco claimed Lucius had been a spy meaning to destroy the diary; he knew better and he told the Prophet Lucius had done it to force muggleborns out of Hogwarts. He mentioned Colin and how he and Hermione had attended a real hero’s funeral Wednesday, not the Death Eater funeral Harry and Draco had gone to. And after all of that, he felt really good with himself for getting the truth out there.

            Ron’s interview made the front page of the Prophet Friday morning. There was a picture of Harry with Draco at Vince’s funeral next to the picture Ron had supplied of Ron and Hermione at Colin’s funeral. The title was Feuding Friends. The article painted the picture of best friends and partners in the war against Voldemort having a falling out and emphasized the point that Harry had chosen to go to the funeral of a Death Eater Wednesday, while Ron and Hermione had gone to the funeral of a muggleborn. Then it went on to list all of the other things Ron had said about Draco and the Malfoy family during his interview.

            Draco read Ron’s interview in the paper at breakfast Friday before Harry even woke up. When Harry did make it down to breakfast, everyone else was gone and it was just Draco left in the dining room feeding the twins, with Teddy in the cradle. “Do you know what your friend Weasley said about me in his latest interview?” Draco asked before Harry could even sit down, inclining his head in the direction of the paper.

            “Um, no, let me read it,” Harry said, grabbing a slice of toast while he read. He was pretty much appalled by most of the stuff Ron said, even if it was mostly true…well except for the part about Draco being a prat. It was more the spin the article put on the facts that Harry didn’t like than the actual facts. That and Ron shouldn’t have told personal information about Harry’s and Draco’s relationship. Telling the paper that Harry hadn’t known where Draco was, but leaving out the part where it was all Harry’s idea in the first place particularly aggravated him. “Alright, I’ll have a talk with him; he can’t be calling you names like that and he’s no right to be giving out our personal information.”

            “That’s not necessary: I need to give another interview to the Prophet to go over all of the times Professor Snape saved me and the boys, to make sure he gets his Order of Merlin. Plus, I need to build up the hype or we’ll never fill the stadium for his funeral and Mother’ll be disappointed.” Draco fought Sev for control of the blue spoon, so that he could give the baby another bite of mush.

            “And you can’t mention how Snape saved you without mentioning what a prick Ron is, I know. I knew it was gonna have to come out eventually,” Harry said, pausing with a fork full of eggs in mid-air. “But do try to be somewhat civil when you mention him.”

            “Alright. I’ll look like a saint in comparison with how little I bash him. I’ll just stick to the facts and let the facts bash him,” Draco replied, pushing a spoon full of squash into Scorp’s opened mouth.

            Harry finished his breakfast and Draco finished feeding the twins. Then they went into the drawing room and Draco wrote a letter to the Prophet informing them of his desire to give another interview. He sent the owl off and received a reply back less than an hour later informing him that his request had been granted and asking if he could stop by that afternoon. Draco sent a return owl agreeing to the time and then went back to spending the morning with his boys.

            When the time came, Draco left Harry and his mother with the boys and apparated to the offices of the Daily Prophet. He gave a very lengthy interview detailing all of the wrong Ronald Weasley had done to him and just how Severus Snape had saved his life and the lives of the twins on multiple occasions. Of course the story he was putting out was that the twins were born extremely premature and that he hadn’t gotten pregnant until his wedding night last June, so some of the details of Weasley’s misconduct had to be fudged.

            Draco told the reporter that he had still been in contact with Harry after Dumbledore’s death; it was true, but he played it up to seem like more than it was. He said that it was during the summer about a month after Dumbledore’s death when Weasley hit him in the stomach, causing two near miscarriages, which Professor Snape was able to stop. He also mentioned that Weasley had hit him in the stomach back in Hogwarts and broken open the sectumsempra wounds, so that people would think these were two different events and Weasley would come off looking even worse, if such a thing was possible.

            Then Draco had blamed the third and final time he went into labor on Weasley’s punching him in the stomach as well. In reality he was already near the end, but the reporter was led to believe he was still three months pre-term and it had been the same old pre-term labor popping up again, only this time Professor Snape couldn’t stop it. He also mentioned Scorpius’ birth defects, resulting from Weasley’s blow. He even handed over a picture emphasizing his son’s malformed leg; up until now, all of the pictures he’d given out of Scorpius had the leg covered or out of the frame. Finally he finished by going over Scorp’s recent visit to St. Mungo’s and the lingering problems the baby still had and how it was questionable if his youngest son would ever be able to walk.

            While he was at it, Draco mentioned the date, time, and location of Professor Severus Snape’s funeral and that it would be at the Bodmin Moor Millenium Stadium, which was a Quidditch stadium in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. And in an effort to be more organized about this funeral than the last one, they were giving out tickets in advance to anyone who cared to owl the event coordinator, Hestia Witte, asking for them. He gave Hestia’ name and office address too.

            Draco’s interview made the front page of the Sunday morning addition, complete with the picture of Scorpius and his leg. Draco was rather proud of himself for this one, because he managed to come off sounding classy and sophisticated, while Ronald Weasley came off as a brainless brute. And according to the elves, the sympathy letters were already pouring in, not that he read any of that rubbish himself; they had their mail filtered and anything from someone they didn’t know went in the ever growing fan mail pile. But still, it was nice to know that it was there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next Harry will finally confront Ron regarding his feud with Draco.
> 
> In other news, I finished one of my other fanfictions this week. I’m one of those authors who don’t like to start new stories until I finish the ones I’m already working on. Now that I’ve finally finished one, I can start another. I had an idea a while ago for a story similar to my other story Blood of the Enemy, with Voldemort getting Draco pregnant, but with a major change: there is no spell to easily determine paternity. Then no one would know who the father really was and Harry wouldn’t be involved initially. Draco gets left in jail and eventually Harry comes into the picture and decides to get involved, still not knowing who the father is. And because I don’t like writing the same story twice, I’ve changed all of the other details of the story to be completely different, including the fact that most of the story isn’t told until 7 years later. So if you’re looking for a new story to read, I highly recommend it. It’s called Harry Potter and the Malfoy Male Pregnancy Curse.


	35. Chapter35

            Tuesday afternoon, when Draco and the twins went down for their naps, Harry dropped Teddy off with Andy and apparated over to the Burrow. Hermione and Ron had sent an owl the day before asking him to come over, since Ron was about to start Auror training. Harry had met the current head Auror and been down to Auror headquarters a few times now; with Ron’s nerves, he wanted Harry to come over and tell him every detail, so that he knew more about what he was getting into.

            Harry apparated to their doorstep and instantly heard the sounds of curses hitting shield charms, running feet, and panting breaths. He heard Ron and Hermione’s voices mixed in with the fray and thought someone was attacking them. The sound was coming from outside, so he drew his wand and followed the noise around the corner of the house until he reached the backyard. There he found Ron and Hermione dueling.

            “Oh, it’s just you two; I thought you were being attacked,” Harry said, putting his wand away.

            “Oi Harry, come duel with me,” Ron said. While Ron was distracted, Hermione hit him with an expelliarmus and caught his wand in midair. “Oh come on! That was so not fair.”

            “Admit it; I just bested the new star Auror,” Hermione replied with a giggle, before tossing Ron’s wand back.

            “Fine, you did, but only because I was talking to Harry,” Ron replied.

            “Alright Harry, your turn; I’ve been dueling with him all day,” Hermione said, sitting down in one of the patio chairs.

            “Um, no thank you,” Harry replied, sitting down in the chair next to Hermione.

            “Why not? I’ve got to practice; Auror training starts next Monday!” Ron exclaimed, walking over to Harry and Hermione, but not sitting down with them.

            “Well for one, I was just dueling Draco’s wand last night if you catch my drift and I’m not really up to a lot of physical activity after that. And for two, after that type of dueling, I might be pregnant. If Draco catches me dueling while I’m pregnant… well let’s just say I’d rather not find out what happens after that,” Harry replied. They had gone back to Grimmauld Place last night for another try at conceiving. Hopefully the fourth time would be the charm. If not, the activity was enjoyable enough that he was willing to keep trying.

            “Ew! I did _not_ want to know that!” Ron exclaimed.

            Hermione smiled and said, “If you didn’t want to know, you shouldn’t have asked.”

            “And how many times did you tell me things about your love life I didn’t want to know? Like in sixth year when you were snogging Lavender Brown, eck, and I wanted to puke hearing the details of what a girl’s lips feel like,” Harry said.

            “Lavender,” Ron said somberly. “We went to her funeral last week.”

            “Oh, that’s right; she died didn’t she?” Harry asked, suddenly feeling bad about bringing her up.

            “Greyback did it; it was a closed casket,” Hermione said.

            “I saw her at Hogwarts. I helped move her body; it was bad,” Ron added.

            “I’m sorry,” Harry said, not knowing what else to say.

            “Why didn’t you go to her funeral? Or Colin’s? Why was it that the only funeral you went to last week was for a Death Eater who tried to kill us?” Ron asked accusingly.

            “I went for Draco. Crabbe was his best friend. He felt responsible and needed closure,” Harry answered.

            “That’s understandable. I’m glad you were there for him,” Hermione replied.

            “Me too. You could’ve asked me that Ron; you didn’t have to go to the papers,” Harry said. He left out that Draco had been in contact with the papers just that morning. He wanted this feud to stop and that was just the sort of thing that would fan the flames. Ron would probably find out eventually, but he’d deal with that when it happened.

            “But it wasn’t just that! The wanker left me completely out of the story! I was right there by your side, risking my life with you almost the entire time, while he was safe in hiding. But he gets all the credit and I get left out!” Ron exclaimed and Harry jumped up, matching his anger.

            “Calm down Ronald,” Hermione said, standing up and getting in between the two.

            “Plenty of people mentioned you!” Harry exclaimed, letting off his frustration with his best friend. “I think everyone except for Draco mentioned you. You didn’t like it when he _did_ mention you and you started it with your interview, so I don’t think you have any right to complain. He had to tell the story of how Professor Snape saved them, so that Snape can get the Order of Merlin he always wanted. After Snape _sacrificed his_ _life for us_ , getting him that award is the least we can do. Draco didn’t call you names or sink nearly as low as you did in your interview about him, so I _don’t_ want to hear anymore complaining about him. I’m sick and tired of hearing you two bicker about each other!”

            “But he lied-” Ron started to say, but Harry cut him off.

            “I don’t care. He’s my _husband_. Do you know what that means?” Harry waited a moment for a response, but Ron just blinked his blue eyes. “That means that he takes care of my children and fucks me on a regular basis.”

            “But I’m your best mate. We’ve been friends since first year; you’ve only been with Malfoy f-” again, Ron was stopped by Harry cutting him off.

            “No, don’t even go there. _I’m so sick of this_. It has to stop, even if that means cutting one of you out of my life. I don’t care how long we’ve been friends, I won’t leave my children for you. That is what you’re asking me to do, you know.” Not to mention the sex he’d have to give up; really awesome sex so great that he didn’t think anyone else could ever be as good.

            “No, I’d never…”

            “Then drop it. I don’t care what he said. I’ve ask him several times now not to say anything bad about your family and I know he’s trying. If you don’t start trying too, then I don’t see how our friendship can continue,” Harry said.

            Ron looked to Hermione, who nodded. Then Ron looked down at his feet and nodded too.

            They were quiet for a while after that. The silence lasted so long in fact that Harry thought he might just prefer going home early and not spending the afternoon visiting with his friends. But then Molly came out and said, “Oh good, you’re here Harry! I thought I heard your voice.”

            “Hi Mrs. Weasley,” Harry replied sheepishly, imagining what Ron’s mum had overheard.

            “Oh come here.” Molly pulled Harry in for a hug. When she released him she said, “Now about the baby shower for Teddy. It seems there is a slight problem with Grimmauld Place not being large enough for everybody who wants to come.”

            “Er, I don’t want this party to be open to the public. Only people who actually know us should be invited,” Harry replied.

            “Yes dear, but have you any idea how many people you know? These things are normally only for women, but even then you know a lot of witches. Pretty much every girl in your year wants to come. And then there are professors, shop keepers, and Aurors who want to come. And then there are Tonks’ friends and Andy’s friends and Cissy’s friends; it’s a lot of witches dear,” Molly said. “If we could just have the party here, there’d be plenty of room out on the lawn, but Grimmauld Place doesn’t have a lawn.”

            “It’s like you’re the flavor of the month, mate, and everybody wants a taste,” Ron said.

            “Okay, well I’ll think about it. Maybe Draco or his mum will know of a bigger place we can use,” Harry replied. He knew Draco wouldn’t be okay with having the party at the Burrow and that they’d have to come up with some other solution.

            “Or maybe Andy might know; she’s come by a couple of times now,” Hermione said.

            “Oh I didn’t know that! I would’ve come with her,” Harry replied.

            “If you’d come, then there would’ve been no one to watch Teddy. She always says that you’re watching him when she comes,” Hermione replied.

            “Yeah, Draco and I do most of the taking care of Teddy,” Harry said.

            “Well dear, let me show you what we’ve got planned so far,” Molly said, before leading Harry and Hermione back into the house. Ron slowly followed after them, clearly not interested in the baby shower.

            Molly and Hermione showed Harry the games they were going to play. Then Molly asked what he’d like to be on the cake she was making and what kind of cake Draco would like. Harry was just thinking that Molly was going to go on forever, when Ron saved him by pulling him back over to the sofa to talk about Auror stuff, such as what Robards was like. They talked until Harry’s two hours were up and then he had to get back to the Villa before naptime was over to help Draco with the babies.

            He stopped first at Andy’s room to retrieve Teddy. And while he was there, he remembered the problem Molly had mentioned about not having a big enough space to throw the baby shower.

            “What about having the shower on the Manor grounds,” Andy suggested. “The house and the nearby yard are all protected by the fidelius, but the grounds are extensive and there’s a lawn surrounding the guesthouse that shouldn’t be under the fidelius.”

            “Yeah, maybe that could work. It’s got looser wards that’d offer protection, but also let people with the current password through. We’ll have to change the password after the party, but it’d still work,” Harry replied.

            Draco and Narcissa agreed to move the baby shower to the lawn outside the Manor guesthouse, so Andy wrote Molly a letter informing her of the change. Andy even took Molly over to the Manor guesthouse to show her around. And since Andy was no longer working on funeral arrangements, she was now making more frequent trips over to the Burrow to help Molly with the party arrangements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Harry really should’ve given Draco the same lecture he gave Ron, but he’s not going to. I want to leave it open, so that Draco has a chance to realize what this feud is doing to Harry and make the decision to stop it on his own. Please review!


	36. Chapter36

            Andy spent her time over at the Burrow, helping Molly, working on the photo album for Teddy, or helping her sister.

            Narcissa was still hard at work on Severus Snape’s funeral, the date of which was growing ever closer.

            Lucius still had his business dealings to see to. The first shipment of muggle jeans had come through and the elves were hard at work altering them. Draco, of course, asked for the first few pairs.

            Harry began to fall into a routine with Draco and the three babies. Their lives were starting to calm down and those two things combined to give Draco a bit of free time every day that he used to read. He still wanted to get his NEWTs next year and that meant another history of magic term paper.

            And so the week passed quickly and Saturday, the day of the baby shower, was soon upon them. They got dressed, had breakfast, and flooed over to the guesthouse. Harry had never been to the guesthouse before and it was an absolute mess when he stepped out of the floo carrying Teddy. There was a giant snake skin that had clearly been shed by Nagini over against the wall. There were scorch marks on the walls that could’ve been from misfired curses, or they could’ve been put there on purpose; anything was possible when dealing with Bellatrix. There was evidence of an exploded cauldron through the door to the small kitchen and combined dining area. There was a large snake turd by the door to one of the bedrooms and he could see murky grey peacock feathers sticking out of it. There was a large crack in the door. And that was just what was visible during his walk from the fireplace to the lawn outside.

            Once Harry got outside, he could see a shattered window on the kitchen and dining area side of the building, but other than that, the outside looked well cared for with a lush green lawn. Draco came through the floo after Harry with Scorp and Sev in their stroller. By the time they made it outside, Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius had apparated over with the jumpers and the bouncer. They got the babies settled, while Lucius went to the road and let Molly, Ginny, Hermione, and Luna in; they had taken a portkey to that location. And then they all went to work setting up the chairs.

            With everybody helping, it didn’t take long. Then Lucius and Harry went to the road to let guests in. Guests who were already familiar with the Manor would apparate to this location, while everyone else would either arrive on a broom or by portkey. Since strangers weren’t invited, Harry and Lucius acted as gate keepers, turning away the fans they didn’t know and letting through people they did and giving them the passcode.

            When it was time to start and the flow of guests arriving was trickling down, Harry left Lucius to wait by the road alone and he joined the party. Andy was showing Teddy off to guests, while Narcissa and Draco were doing the same with Sev and Scorp, respectively. This was the first time Sev and Scorp had been introduced to anyone outside of the Malfoy family, so there was just as big of a crowd gathered around each of them as around Teddy.

            Hermione came up to Harry and asked, “Are you ready to start?”

            “Yeah. How’s it going so far? Scorp hasn’t had any problems?” Harry asked concerned. Scorpius had always screamed before whenever he had met a new person and there were a lot of new people here.

            “He’s screeched at a few admirers, but every witch he screeches at gets sent over to Sev or Teddy. We put in the invitation that no one who had recently performed dangerous or offensive magic would be allowed to stay. It seems everyone pretty much abided by that stipulation,” Hermione answered.

            “That’s great,” Harry replied. “Guess they take their first chance to meet the Savior’s kids very seriously.”

            “That and they’re all friends of ours. Pretty much every witch from Hogwarts is here along with a few older witches that knew Tonks or Draco’s families,” Hermione replied.

            “Yeah, so what do we do at this baby shower?” Harry asked, trying to remember back to what Molly had said about it.

            “We play silly games, fawn over the babies, eat cake, and then open the presents,” Hermione answered. “Let’s go over and tell Molly it’s time to start.”

            They walked over to Molly, who was fawning over Scorpius.

            “He is just the cutest little thing, dear. I’m a dab hand with a baby and any time you need a sitter, don’t hesitate to ask,” Molly said.

            “Thank you for the offer,” Draco replied, trying not to be rude. He had no plans on ever taking her up on that offer and it wasn’t just because of the red tinge to her mostly grey hair. Not only was she was Weasley’s mother, but also Scorpius had cried at Ginny when she got too near him. That was why Ginny had been sent over to fawn over Sev.

            “Sorry to interrupt, but we’re ready to start,” Hermione said.

            Soon Draco and Harry were sitting side by side in a pair of chairs and holding Scorpius and Teddy while Sev was sitting at their feet pulling up the grass. Their guests took seats in a very large circle, since there were over fifty witches present, and they played games. There was a baby crossword puzzle to solve, baby word bingo, baby word boggle, and a game where people guessed how fat Draco was when he was pregnant with the twins; whoever was closest to the actual maximum width of Draco’s belly won a prize, with Narcissa as the judge. There was a prize given out with each game and it seemed Hermione picked the prizes, because they were all books.

            After the games they ate cake. It was a white cake with a picture of a stork carrying three babies in a bundle drawn in icing. It had, “Congratulations Harry and Draco!” written on it. It was a very nice cake and Draco hated to cut into it and ruin it, but then he also wanted to eat it and taste the cream cheese frosting. It was a very tasty cake.

            Then Harry passed Teddy over to Andy and Draco passed Scorp over to Hermione, so that they could open the presents. Most of the presents were clothes or toys. There weren’t any size newborn clothes, because they had asked people to only get larger things, but there was every other size and plenty of them.

            One thing that surprised them was that a lot of the outfits and gifts came in sets of three, with one for each baby. For example, there was a cute set of sweaters from Molly; one sweater was size twelve months and was blue, the next was green and size nine months, and the last one was red and size six months. Ginny, Luna, Hermione, and Neville all gave them gifts for three as well.

            They hadn’t asked for it, but there was a stationary jumper from the shop keepers in Hogsmeade. There was a swing that was brought by Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Daphne Greengrass, but they said it was also from Blaise, Theo, and all of their families; it was different from the standard ocean themed one the twins had, because this one looked futuristic and promised to rock the baby in five different natural motions and offered a range of reclining positions.

            There were many larger gifts that were from groups or whole families, such as the stroller they had asked for which was from the Auror department. They received a highchair from Fleur, Bill, and the Delacour family. There was a bath seat from Madam Pince and Madam Pomfrey. There was a red crib set from Susan Bones and the Bones family. There was even a box full of soothers from Ted Tonks’ muggle family, which was brought by Ted’s muggle sister Windy. Cho Chang, Hannah Abbott, Padma Patil, and Parvati Patil were there with a rocking horse from the surviving members of Dumbledore’s Army. Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell had a box of clothes and blankets.

            Oddly enough, several of Draco’s relatives came and gave gifts specifically for Scorp and Sev, without having anything for Teddy. The best gift of this lot was from the Craggy and Vanity families, who combined to give a pair of blankets made by elves out of wool spun from the coat of a unicorn. Harry thought it sounded wrong to shear a unicorn in order to make a blanket, but Scorp absolutely loved his and wouldn’t be separated from it. They were soft, white, and sparkly and it wasn’t as if the unicorn had died in the process.

            Mrs. Lestrange was the only one of Draco’s relatives who deviated from the rule of ignoring Teddy. She brought a bag full of typical every day baby clothes, with an equal number of outfits for Teddy as there were for the twins. Harry was so shocked that he actually thanked the white haired old lady who must’ve given birth to the Death Eaters Rodolphus and Rabastan. When he was thanking her, he suddenly remembered that Draco had said that Rodolphus’ mother hated Bellatrix. He smiled at the old woman, thinking that she couldn’t be all bad if she’d given him gifts for the great nephew Bellatrix had never acknowledged and had hated Bellatrix.

            “This is great, thank you,” Draco said to Professors McGonagall, Trelawney, and Babbling, who had just given him a large gift bag, which they said was from all of the Hogwarts professors; it was full of clothes with three stuffed teddy bears on top.

            “Thank you, Professors,” Harry said, while Draco looked through the bag.

            Then Ginny came up to Draco holding Teddy, having gotten him off of Andy five minutes before and asked, “Can I get a nappy and wipes for Teddy, Draco? I’m certain he’s pooping.”

            “Ask an elf; I haven’t got any on me,” Draco replied. Sure he always packed a nappy bag when they left the house, but they were just over at the Manor, within the territory of the Manor house elves, so he hadn’t bothered.

            “Sure you do; you’ve got that nappy bag right there,” Ginny said reaching over and opening the flap on the black bag Draco had been carrying with him all day.

            “That’s not a nappy bag and I’d thank you to stay away from me,” Draco said, closing the bag back up.

            “What is it?” Ginny wondered. Sure there hadn’t been any nappies inside, but she also didn’t recognize the machine Draco had or know why he was carrying the machine around.

            “If you must know, Weasley, it’s a breast pump. Now either ask a house elf for a nappy and change Teddy’s or hand him over to Harry and he’ll do it,” Draco said.

            “Alright, sorry. What’s a house elf’s name?” Ginny asked.

            “Loppy,” Draco answered.

            And so Ginny called Loppy and asked for a nappy and wipes.

            Draco turned back to the gift from his old teachers and pulled out a hideously ugly and severely lopsided hand crocheted olive green blanket, with a light pink trim. He held it up and then handed it to Harry, whispering, “See what happens when you’re friends with half-breeds? Now he’s gonna want a picture of Teddy with this monstrosity.”

            “What is it?” Harry asked. “I hope it’s not a nappy.”

            “I thought you’d know what it was; figured it was some muggle thing for you,” Draco lied, inwardly sighing in relief that Harry didn’t know it was a blanket. Teddy would be safe from the awful blanket as long as Harry didn’t know what it was. He was just lucky his husband was slow on the uptake with baby things.

            “Not that I know of,” Harry replied, starting to think it was a hat…. A really ugly and far too large hat… Hagrid probably miscalculated the size of a human baby’s head.

            “We may have gotten too much stuff,” Draco said, looking at the huge pile of opened gifts.

            “Maybe we should stop buying the babies stuff. We’ll just announce what we need in the papers and see if anyone gets it for us.”

            “Yeah, that’ll work as long as you tell Hagrid we don’t need another…whatever this is. Let’s do that for the twins’ birthday in December. We’ll make a list of everything we’ll need for the year and see how much of it we get,” Draco replied.

            Harry agreed and watched as Narcissa and Lucius arranged for house elves to apparate gifts back to the villa. They would have to go through it all, but for now the elves just put it in the drawing room.

            Andy and Hermione stayed at the party with Sev and fed him a bottle, but Draco flooed Scorpius and Teddy over to the villa so that he could nurse both of them in private. And as always, he was hungry, so he had the house elves bring him a plate of lunch in the nursery.

            While Draco was gone, Neville came up to Harry and asked, “Where did the other babies go? Isn’t this Teddy’s party and he’s not here.” Neville was one of very few males present. There were Lucius, Harry, Draco, Teddy, Scorp, Sev, and Neville, but everyone else was a witch.

            “Draco’s feeding Scorp and Teddy,” Harry replied.

            “Can’t he feed them here like Hermione’s doing with the blond one?” Neville asked.

            “No, he’s _breast feeding_ Scorp and Teddy,” Harry answered.

            “He’s breast feeding Teddy too?” Neville was shocked and slightly appalled.

            “Teddy has to be fed something and breast feeding is best.”

            “Oh, I guess…”

            “Thanks for the play gyms by the way; I haven’t seen any at the house, so I don’t think the babies had any.”

            “You’re welcome. Gran picked them out; I don’t even know if babies like that sort of thing.”

            “I think Scorp will like them; they’re low to the ground so that he can reach them. Sev will probably just crawl away, but Scorp can’t crawl.”

            “I saw Draco holding Scorpius earlier; his one leg is really tiny, isn’t it?”

            “Yeah. We had it straightened, but strengthening it is gonna take time and a lot of work.” They had been exercising Scorp’s leg every day since their trip to St. Mungo’s. It was slow going and they were barely up to ten repetitions without Scorp crying.

            “I still can’t believe Ron hit Draco like that.”

            “Yeah, of all the stupid things he’s done,” Harry started to say, but lost his train of thought when Firenze the centaur stepped out of the forest and approached him.

            “It is a great day in human centaur relations when two of our half-breeds bring forth a child and a greater day when they bring forth two. I brought this orb as a gift from myself, but you can consider it from all centaurs,” Firenze said, holding out a solid black orb to Harry. It was about the size Neville’s remembrall had been, only it looked more like polished stone than glass and it was a slightly lopsided oval, not a perfect sphere.

            “Thank you Firenze,” Harry replied taking the orb. “What do I do with it?”

            “Place it in the nursery and every evening it will project the image of the night sky, that particular night’s sky, onto the ceiling,” Firenze answered. “We use them in our caves with our fowls until they are strong enough to leave the birthing cave.”

            “Great! Is there an incantation I need to activate it?”

            “No, it will activate itself after the sun sets.”

            “Brilliant. I heard you were injured in the battle; are you okay?”

            “Yes, it was merely a flesh wound. I have healed sufficiently, although I have this scar to testify to my heroism now.” Firenze indicated a long scar that ran down his naked torso. It looked like it had been quite the wound. “I must leave now; I have not been given the password and am not welcome here.”

            “Sure you’re welcome and I can give you the passcode. But how did you get in without the passcode?”

            “The wards are active against humans only. As a centaur, I walked right through. I cannot stay though; I am a long way away from my herd and I must get back. Farewell and take care Harry Malfoy,” Firenze said before galloping away back into the forest.

            Neville had walked away while Harry was talking to Firenze and now Professor McGonagall came up to congratulate him on adopting Teddy, getting married, and having the twins. By the time she finished, half a dozen other witches were in line to congratulate Harry and that started a trend as each witch came up to him and congratulated him before leaving the party.

            Guests trickled out and Harry took Sev home. Draco was already hard at work putting together the new baby items, starting with the new swing. There was a slight snag when Teddy vomited from the swing going too fast, but that was solved with a bath.

            After his usual afternoon nap, Draco came downstairs with a newly awoken Teddy to find Harry tying a thank you to the leg of an owl. “Teddy doesn’t seem to want to nurse; I think he’s getting sick after all,” Draco said. His mother and aunt had both deemed the baby find after the earlier vomiting incident. Babies did that sort of thing all of the time and the swing was on the highest setting, which was too fast for his age.

            “No, I fed him a bottle while you were asleep. Do you want to try the swing again?” Harry tapped the swing with his wand, doubling the child seat to make room for Teddy, because Sev had fallen asleep in it earlier and was still napping.

            “Yeah, alright. Whoa, how’d you do that?”

            “Your mum showed me. She said it even holds three babies in the upright position.”

            “That’s awesome. And here I was thinking my friends were being cheap by only getting us the one gift when it’s really a gift for all three babies.” Draco put Teddy into the swing.

            “Yeah, this thing is pretty cool. How come we didn’t order one like this for the twins?”

            “Because this was differently _not_ in the catalogue we had.” Draco looked down, noticing a pile of thank you cards Harry had written while Draco was sleeping. He was pleasantly surprised by Harry’s thoughtfulness. “You made out all of the cards already? Thanks.”

            “You’re welcome,” Harry replied, pulling Draco in for a kiss.

            When they broke apart, it took Draco a few seconds to catch his breath. Then he looked down at the desk again and noticed a black orb. “What’s this?”

            “Oh, um Firenze gave that to me after you left. He said it will display an image of the stars or something on the ceiling.”

            “Firenze?”

            “Yeah, he’s that centaur who saved me from Voldemort first year when we were on that detention out in the forest with Hagrid.”

            “What centaur? What are you talking about?”

            “First year we had detention with Hagrid in the forest and we saw that thing drinking the unicorn blood, remember?”

            “Yeah, that was the Dark Lord?”

            “Yep and after you ran Firenze came and saved me.”

            “You mean after I saved myself by running away and you stupidly stayed put?”

            “Yes.”

            “Only you would be stupid enough to not run in a situation like that. If our boys ever ask you what they should do in that type of situation, you better tell them to run.”

            “Alright, maybe I should’ve run. I would’ve, but right after you left my scar felt like it burst into flames and I couldn’t.”

            “You were fine when I left. If you would’ve run when I ran, your scar never would’ve hurt.”

            “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

            “There isn’t any probably about it.”

            “Yeah, I know, because you’re a Malfoy and Malfoys are always right, right?”

            “Oh, you’re catching on; must be my last name rubbing off on you, yeah?” Draco leaned in for another quick kiss. “Anyway, we can put the orb in the nursery and see what it does tonight.”

            It wasn’t until Draco woke up to give the boys their midnight feeding that he saw the orb in action. The projection it made onto the ceiling was beautiful and reminded him of the ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The stars shone brightly on the ceiling, but there was a dark cloud covering half of the sky that night and the cloud was projected onto the ceiling of the nursery, just as it was outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco’s birthday is coming up, which means a shopping trip for Harry! What to get the wizard who has everything?
> 
> Please Review!


	37. Chapter37

            “Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?” Lucius asked Sunday afternoon.

            Harry had been alone with Teddy in the drawing room. Andy was in the study helping Narcissa with funeral arrangements and Draco, Sev, and Scorp were all taking theirs naps. It was just Harry, Teddy, and Lucius, which still felt odd to Harry. “Um, yeah, I guess,” Harry replied.

            “Good. I was wondering if you are aware of the fact that Friday is Draco’s eighteenth birthday?” Lucius asked.

            “Um, no, I didn’t know,” Harry answered, his mind suddenly whirling with panic over what to get his husband. How could he have forgotten Draco’s birthday? He was late finding out about it last year and he really should’ve remembered that it was coming up. He had assumed Draco would remind him, but Draco hadn’t said a word about it this year and hadn’t even told him about it last year, which both seemed way out of character for Draco, who liked being the center of attention.

            “Normally it is the seventeenth birthday that is the big deal. I was unable to be with Draco last year on his birthday and I’m afraid the day passed without the proper celebration. Cissy told me there were a few presents and a cake here at the Villa during a weekend visit, but he didn’t get the proper formal ball. I would like to throw one for him this year, to make up for my failings, but every time I suggest a ball he looks so put upon. He never was overly fond of balls, you see, so I was thinking that just a typical birthday party with friends and family is in order.”

            “Yeah, that sounds brilliant. How can I help?” Harry was very relieved to hear that Lucius was not intending to throw Draco a ball, because he’d just as soon crucio a puppy as agree to a ball. And he liked puppies, as long as they didn’t belong to his aunt Marge.

            “I’d like to invite all of his friends. I know how to contact his Slytherin friends, but is there anyone else I should invite?”

            “Yeah, um, Hermione. I’ll invite her, if you tell me when.”

            “Naturally it will be this Friday, on his birthday and I was thinking an evening party would be best. The elves will serve dinner out on the patio and bake a cake. Then we’ll play music and there will be dancing. What else do you young people like?”

            “Um…” Harry tried to think about what wizards his age liked to do for a good time, but nothing he could think of would work. Back at Hogwarts they had drank butterbeers, which wouldn’t work because Draco was breast feeding. With Ron and Hermione, he liked to duel, which also wasn’t the best idea at the moment. He’d spent far too much time during the last year on the run and not nearly enough having a good time. “I’ve no idea. Play exploding snap maybe. Dancing and food is good though and I can ask around.”

            “I’ll write to Pansy and see if she has any suggestions. This is a surprise party, so don’t let it get out. Oh, and Draco has mentioned on several occasions that he hates the Weasleys, so no Weasleys.” Lucius hated them more, but he felt it was best to phrase it like this, because he was worried about making Harry upset with him. He didn’t think their tentative understanding could withstand a major disagreement.

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll only invite Hermione.” Harry thought for a moment about inviting Luna or Neville, because Draco hadn’t mentioned a dislike of either of them, but they were his friends, not Draco’s friends and he thought it’d be better to just stick to Hermione.

            Lucius nodded and excused himself. Harry wrote Hermione informing her of the party and asking for help with what to get Draco. He had absolutely no idea what Draco would want. He had only managed to get Draco a bouquet of flowers last year and this year he needed something way better than flowers. If Draco was a witch, he’d probably go with some type of jewelry, but Draco was a wizard and already had plenty of jewelry. What did one get their husband?

            When Draco woke up, Harry didn’t mention Draco’s birthday and pretended like he didn’t know it was coming up, so that Draco would be surprised when the day came. After dinner a return owl came from Hermione, who suggested they go shopping tomorrow. He didn’t want Draco to know what he was up to, so he hid the letter in his pocket and asked, “Draco, is it alright if I go see Hermione tomorrow afternoon?”

            “Yeah, sure, as long as Aunt Andy is willing to watch Edward,” Draco replied. He was tired of using the muggle nickname and had decided to just start calling Baby Edward by his full name, in hopes that it would catch on.

            Harry wrote Hermione back, informing her that they were on for two and that he would meet her at the Burrow.

            With the shopping trip happening so soon, Harry tried all night to think of something Draco would like. When Draco picked up a quill that had fallen on the floor, he wondered if he should buy Draco a new quill. When Draco picked up a book to read, he thought about buying a new book. When they took a bath together, he looked at all of Draco’s bottles of soap, shampoo, and conditioner and thought of getting something along that line. Maybe Draco would like some lotion.

            The first really good idea for Draco’s birthday present came to Harry when they were getting ready to go to bed and Draco put his same old paternity robes back on. Those paternity robes were the only thing Draco could wear, because he was breast feeding. Draco wore them during the day and to sleep in at night. When they had gone out to the Ministry, to Remus and Tonks’ funeral, to Crabbe’s funeral, and to the baby shower, Draco had worn the same plain black paternity robes. Draco even wore them when they went down to the creek to enjoy the cool water. What Draco really needed was some new paternity robes; robes that weren’t plain or black and weren’t quite so all purpose.

            Harry went to sleep Monday night thinking of all of the different types of paternity robes he could get Draco. Tuesday morning he kept his eyes peeled for any other gift ideas he could come up with. They were low on Scorp’s muscle strengthening potion, so Harry watched the boys while Draco went down the hall to make some in the potions lab. Andy and Narcissa were just in the next room if Harry needed help and all three boys seemed content at the moment. Harry watched Scorp enjoying the up and down motion of the new swing and thought about getting Draco potion ingredients. But potion ingredients seemed like a lousy birthday gift, so he pushed that thought aside.

            It took Draco all morning to make the potion. Harry needed help just a half an hour in, because Teddy pooped and needed a nappy change. Andy came to the rescue, taking Teddy upstairs to the nursery. Andy came back down with a freshly changed Teddy and sat down on the sofa.

            “Thank you so much, Andy,” Harry said from the floor, where he was changing Sev into a clean nappy. Sev and Scorp only ever peed, so changing their nappies was simple and could be done on the drawing room floor.

            “You’re welcome. If Draco’s making a potion, he’ll probably be gone all morning. I could stay and help out if you like,” Andy replied, summoning a toy for Teddy to play with.

            “Would you? That’d be great,” Harry replied, pushing Sev’s torso back down, because the baby was straining to sit up. Harry pulled down Sev’s onesie and quickly fastened the snaps.

            “Of course, Harry. Teddy’s my grandson and you can ask me for help anytime.”

            “Actually, there’s something else I need help with; I need to get Draco a birthday present. What are you supposed to get your husband for their birthday?” Harry asked, turning Sev back over and pushing the baby gently back down, so that he could finish the last snap. No sooner did he get it than Sev rolled away again.

            Andy had a husband until recently, so Harry thought she had experience with this sort of thing.

            “Ted liked cologne, fishing rods, and sex. Your anniversary is coming up as well and you’ll need to get him something for that too.”

            Harry did _not_ want to talk to Tonks’ mum about sex, so he ignored it. “Alright, what should I get him for our first anniversary?”

            “How about cufflinks? I know Draco likes jewelry.”

            Harry didn’t have much experience with cufflinks, but he had worn a pair when they got married. Draco had worn a pair too and they seemed like the type of upper class thing the Malfoys would be into. “Alright, so cufflinks and cologne. Anything else?”

            “This may seem strange, but it’s always nice to get something for your children, especially when you’re a new parent. So if you see something the babies might like, it wouldn’t hurt to get it.”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry said, remembering how happy Draco had seemed opening up all of those presents at the baby shower. But at the moment, he thought they had more than enough baby stuff.

            “And plan something for the two of you to do on your anniversary; dinner at least and arrange a baby sitter, but if there’s something else you know he likes to do, you should arrange to do it.”

            “I know we both like to fly and snorkel, but there’s no snorkeling in Great Britain and I don’t know if it’s a good idea to be on a broom. Draco’s still breast feeding and has to carry that pump around and I should be pregnant by then. Is it okay to fly when you’re pregnant?”

            “I don’t see why not, as long as you’re careful not to fall. And as for snorkeling, probably the best anniversary gift you can give him is a vacation trip somewhere, especially because you didn’t have a proper honeymoon. Maybe we can plan a vacation as a family and go somewhere tropical.”

            “Yeah, that’d be brilliant, thanks Andy!”

            Harry spent the rest of the morning taking care of the three babies and talking to Andy about their potential vacation. He knew immediately that if they went anywhere, it’d have to be to Hawaii. Draco loved it and the place held many special memories for Harry; some of the happiest times in his life had been in the Hawaiian room of requirement. That was where they’d found out they were having twins and where they’d spent all of those hours fooling around.

            It wasn’t as simple as apparating over to Hawaii or even taking a portkey, because they had three babies to consider and Draco was still breast feeding. That meant they would have to take the babies with them. Then they’d need Andy and Draco’s parents to babysit, so that meant the entire family would have to go. Andy said she was certain Lucius and Narcissa would agree to go, but that he should wait until after Snape’s funeral to bring it up, because Narcissa was super busy with the funeral arrangements right now.

            Draco finished the potion before lunch. He had a fresh vial of the vile muscle strengthener to add to Scorp’s mashed carrots, which he fed his son. After lunch Draco and Harry took the boys up to the nursery to play for a bit. Edward was getting older and stronger, so they put him on one of the play mats on the floor and watched the baby struggle to lift his chest off of the floor, having already mastered lifting his head up. Sev crawled around the nursery floor and banged on the baby ward on the door, preventing his escape. Scorp too they put on a play mat and exercised his left leg, before letting him play with the dangling toys of the toy gym.

            The five of them played in the nursery until naptime, when Draco laid all three boys down and went to sleep in the spare bed, and Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and his wallet, and apparated over to the Burrow.

            Hermione was waiting on the bench outside the Burrow for Harry and stood up when he arrived. “Hi Harry. I was thinking that it’d be best to shop in muggle stores, so that no one takes a picture of you and you don’t get mobbed. Have you thought of what you want to buy?”

            “Well I need to buy something for our anniversary too and Andy suggested cufflinks. And then I’d like to get some lotion and some cologne, but what Draco really needs is paternity robes,” Harry answered.

            “Alright, so we will have to go to wizarding stores for the robes and maybe it would be best for the cufflinks as well, but the other things we can get at muggle stores,” Hermione said digging in her beaded bag; the same bag they had taken on their horcrux hunt.

            “What’re you doing Hermione?”

            “Looking for a vial of polyjuice potion; we’ll need it if we’re going to Diagon Alley,” Hermione said pulling a vial of the horrible potion out of her bag. “And I’ve already added one of Ron’s hairs.”

            “Right, good, but maybe we should get the lotion and the cologne first. Better take my robes off if we’ll be in sight of the muggles.” Harry had trousers and a white muggle-shirt underneath, so he pulled off his robes and handed them to Hermione to put in her bag.

            “Yes, good idea. I think the drugstore I took you to before should have cologne and lotion. Does that work?” Hermione asked, slipping the vial back into her purse along with Harry’s robes.

            Harry agreed, handed Hermione his cloak to stuff into her bag, and then they apparated away. They walked down the block, entered the muggle store, and spent half an hour sniffing bottles of cologne and lotion. They settled on some that they thought smelled alright and then while they were there, he went to the vitamin section and picked up another set of bottles of multivitamins, iron, and calcium. He used the last of his muggle money, which meant he’d need to pick up more muggle money from Gringotts.

            After the muggle store, Harry put his robes back on and polyjuiced himself into Ron and they apparated to Diagon Alley. First they went to a jewelry shop, where Harry purchased a platinum pair of cufflinks that were charmed to protect the cuffs they were attached to from getting dirty or trailing in the soup. What Harry really liked about them was that they automatically cleaned the soot off of your robes after traveling by floo. It was the type of thing he really needed and with all the floo travel they had to do with the babies, he thought Draco might appreciate them.

            After the jewelry shop, they stopped by Gringotts, for Harry to make a withdrawal.

            The polyjuice having worn off, Harry put on his invisibility cloak and walked with Hermione over to Madam Malkin’s, which was thankfully empty. It was a Tuesday afternoon and far too early in the summer for anyone to be school shopping.

            “Hello Hermione dear, I’m so glad you made it through the war alright,” Madam Malkin greeted.

            “Oh hello. Thank you very much,” Hermione replied, taking a seat in a chair to wait.

            “What can I help you with today? Perhaps a new dress?” Madam Malkin was slightly confused as to why the young girl had come in and just sat down when she was the only one in the store. Then Harry threw off the cloak and revealed himself, surprising Madam Malkin quite a bit. “Auror Potter! Where ever did you come from?” she asked.

            “Sorry, Madam Malkin, but I had to use my invisibility cloak, or I would’ve surely been caught by my adoring fans. And um, it’s Auror Malfoy now,” Harry replied.

            “Yes, that’s right. What can I do you for you, Auror Malfoy? You must need a new set of dress robes for all of the dinner parties you’ve been invited to,” Madam Malkin replied.

            “No, not really. The elves sort our owls and anything with an invitation to a dinner party goes straight in the bin to burn. I’m not much of a fan of dinner parties, you see. What I need are some new paternity robes for my husband Draco. Do you do paternity robes?”

            Madam Malkin said she did and asked about Draco’s measurements. Draco had grown since last year, so the measurements Harry had were no longer accurate. Harry would have to get the new measurements and owl them.

            With that settled, Harry went on to explain, “He has a bunch of plain black paternity robes, so what I want are ones that are different. It’d be nice to get him some soft ones for sleeping and maybe a nice set for funerals and fancy occasions. Then he absolutely needs sort of a light weight shirt he can wear when we go swimming,” Harry replied.

            “The standard ones are all plain black, but I can make the robes you want specifically for Lord Malfoy. Forgive me if I’m intruding, but is Lord Malfoy pregnant or planning to become pregnant soon? Or is it just the panels for breast feeding he needs?” It was in all of the papers that Lord Malfoy had given birth to Harry’s twins recently, so of course he would be breast feeding.

            “The latter, but he also does a lot of breast pumping and the robes he has now have a wizard space charm on them to conceal the breast pump.”

            “Yes, I can do that. It’ll make it easier to make these things if I don’t need to factor in an enlarged stomach. Might I also suggest a shear undershirt that is sort of a slip with the wizard space charm on it? It would conceal the breast pumps and could be worn underneath his regular clothes. He’d have to pull the robes off to spell open panels of the undershirt, but it’s a solution that could work for a few hours at a time and enable him to wear almost all of his normal clothes.”

            “Oh yeah, that sounds brilliant. I’ll take one of those.”

            “I’ve made Draco Malfoy undershirts before. Should I make this one out of the same fabric and style?”

            “Yeah, definitely.”

            “As for the swimming shirt, I have some material that’s perfect for a swimsuit that I want you to take a look at. I can make it into a typical summer robes cut, which should work for swimming, I just need to know which color and pattern you like best.”

            Madam Malkin walked Harry to a back room that was filled with fabrics and showed him a small section of swimsuit material. There really weren’t all that many choices and half of them were clearly for witches, which left about three options. He chose the white fabric with the green hibiscus flowers, because it was the most tropical looking. Madam Malkin made a note of his choice and then led him to the rack of soft pajama material. He chose a light blue material with clouds, a plain medium blue material, and a light grey material with maroon colored dragons. Then there was a very extensive rack of fabric for dress robes that made Harry’s head spin. There was silk, velvet, satin, chiffon, linen, muslin, taffeta, and Merlin only knew what else.

            “If you’re having trouble deciding, I do have a record of the last set of dress robes I made for Lord Malfoy. I could remake those robes, just with the modifications necessary for paternity robes,” Madam Malkin suggested.

            “Could you? That’d be brilliant,” Harry replied.

            Madam Malkin then showed Harry the shear light grey fabric she had used last time and a diagram of the style, which was embellished with lacey white stars. Harry didn’t know much about dress robes, but they seemed a bit too frilly for his tastes. Although, Draco did have a closet full of dress robes and most of them looked far too frilly, so he decided that Draco probably liked that sort of thing.

            After that Madam Malkin went over Harry’s order. “That’s one set of dress robes, one set of summer robes, and five sets of night robes. When do you need these by?”

            “Friday; that’s his birthday,” Harry replied.

            “Well that is a rather large order to fill on such short notice. I could do half by Friday, but not all of it.”  
            “Alright, then do the dress robes, the undershirt, and the summer robes by Friday and send me the night robes whenever they’re ready.”

            “Harry, might it be better to just get Draco pajama shirts to go with his usual pajama pants?” Hermione suggested. She had just finished looking over the style patterns Harry had chosen and noticed how girly the night robes were, like a female nightgown.

            “Yeah, can you do that?” Harry asked. Madam Malkin agreed and then added up the total, which Harry paid. “Thanks for coming with me Hermione.”

            “Anytime Harry. Do you want to come back with me to the Burrow?”

            “No, it’s getting pretty late. Naptime is probably over by now and I need to get back,” Harry replied, before giving Hermione a hug.

            After that Hermione apparated back to the Burrow and Harry to the Villa. Harry asked a house elf to wrap and hide Draco’s gifts.

            The best time to work on Draco’s birthday presents was during naptime, because Draco was asleep and therefore wouldn’t find out. Wednesday during naptime Harry was able to get Narcissa alone for a moment to ask her what Draco’s current measurements were. Narcissa confirmed that they were the same as last year, just an inch taller. He owled Madam Malkin with the measurements.

            Thursday during naptime, Lucius approached Harry and went over the final plans for Draco’s surprise birthday party. Lucius said, “I’ve invited all of Draco’s Slytherin friends and I just need some whiz bangs from the Weasley store. Can you pick them up for me? I’m not sure I’m welcome over there.” And he definitely wouldn’t be welcome over there if he showed up and insulted the owner. It was so hard to avoid insulting someone who happened to be a Weasley. If the Weasley store didn’t have the best whiz bangs, he wouldn’t bother shopping there. But they did and he had to have the best for his only son.

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll go right now,” Harry replied.

            Harry asked Andy to watch Teddy and then he apparated over to WWW. George was happy to see him. When Harry asked for fireworks, George gave him the largest set of whiz bangs, which included two Whack Trance Whammy Rockets, two Thor's Thunder Crackers, two Thestral Thrashers, and two Spectrum Splashers.

            “Whatever are you gonna do with all these whiz bangs, mate?” George asked.

            “Oh, they’re for Draco’s birthday this Friday,” Harry answered.

            “Perfect,” George said, adding another box of fireworks to the pile, “this is the new Harry and Draco yin yang opposites attract set; they’re really flying off the shelves right now. Be careful with these; they’re explosive, yeah?”

            “Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

            “Since it’s his birthday, let me get you a bubble machine and a Mega Box. Is there anything else here you think he’d like?”

            “Um, well I did tell him about your Extendable Ears once. He seemed interested at the time, but I don’t see what he’d do with them now.

            “Let that be his problem, mate. I’ll just throw in two packages, in case one breaks,” George replied, adding two packages of the ears to Harry’s growing bag.

            Business was slow at the moment, so Harry stayed a bit longer, and asked, “How are you doing, George?”

            George sighed and said, “Life without Fred is hard, but I’m getting by. I’m throwing myself into my work right now. It’s good to have the shop reopened and there’s plenty to do to keep me busy, even on slow days like this one. And a lot of people have been stopping by to help and to keep me company. Ron and Charlie were with me constantly at first, but Charlie had to get back to work in Romania and Ron’s preparing to start Auror training soon, so he hasn’t been by as much. Angelina and Lee have been by every day this week.”

            George evidentially spoke too soon about it being a slow day, because while he was speaking, a witch opened the door to his store, recognized Harry Malfoy, and then retreated back into Diagon Alley to spread the word that Harry Malfoy was in WWW. Harry was telling George to hang in there and that things would get easier, when all of Diagon Alley started pouring into the store. Harry had to leave abruptly.

            Harry apparated back to the Villa and found Lucius. “Here’re the whiz bangs and George gave me some extra party supplies,” Harry said, handing the shopping bags over to Lucius.

            “Thank you, Harry. I’ll have the elves hide these in the cellar until the party. We really ought to have a talk with George soon about formalizing your investment with his business,” Lucius said.

            “He gave me all these things for the party for free; I really don’t need the investment formalized.”

            “What if George Weasley were to die and someone else took over the company and ran it into the ground. Without a formalized investment contract, you’d have no say in the matter and there would be nothing you could do about it. But if we get it put down in writing, then you can make sure someone competent is running the business. And if there’s no one else to run it, you could ask for your money back. This might not become important until years in the future. It might not even be important in your lifetime, but in the lifetimes of your children. A formal agreement is something you can leave your children. An informal contract will turn into a nightmare for your children to deal with, especially after you and Mr. George Weasley are dead.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll owl him about it and see what he thinks,” Harry agreed.

            Harry went to the drawing room and wrote George an owl, telling George all of Lucius’ reasons for wanting a formal agreement and asking what George thought on the matter. Of course George wasn’t able to respond to the owl for several hours, because he was still dealing with the sudden influx of customers that happens when word gets out that Harry Malfoy is visiting a certain establishment. Later that evening, after the three babies had had their baths, Harry received a reply owl from George, informing him that George would be agreeable to writing out a formal agreement. George wrote that they had always intended on repaying Harry and that George intended to honor that.

            Harry tucked George’s owl away in the top drawer of Draco’s desk and waited until morning to show the owl to Lucius. Lucius said he would write their attorney and arrange for a meeting to come up with the formal agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up will be the birthday party!


	38. Chapter38

            Just after lunch on Friday, two owls carrying a good sized bundle wrapped in decorative paper and ribbons arrived. Draco had been attaching yet another set of the thank you cards from the baby shower to each of their family’s three owls when through the drawing room window, he saw two house elves out on the patio struggling with untying the package from the delivery owls. Since it was his birthday, even though no one in the house had mentioned it, he knew it was for him. He went out the back door, intercepting the package from the elves.

            Harry had been crawling around the floor with Sev when Draco ran out of the room. Scorp and Teddy were happily enjoying the new swing, so he picked Sev up and followed Draco out the door. Draco was sitting down on one of the benches associated with the patio table, package in hand, turning it over looking for a card.

            “Um, that’d be from me. I ordered it from Madam Malkin when I was with Hermione,” Harry said, sitting down next to Draco with Sev in his lap.

            “You remembered?” Draco asked surprised. He really didn’t think anyone had remembered, least of all Harry. His parents had never forgotten before, but with the war, the funerals, the children, and everything else that was going on, he understood. He wasn’t the spoiled child he’d once been and blind recognition for simply being born meant nothing if he had to demand it.

            “Yeah, but why didn’t you say anything?” Harry asked.

            “Everything is so hectic with the end of the war and all of the funerals that I’d thought everyone had forgotten. Professor Snape’s funeral is tomorrow.” It was hard to celebrate the fact that he’d made it through another year, when the man who had sacrificed everything to make that possible wasn’t.

            “Yeah, but that’s tomorrow. Today I wanted to get you something. Open it.”

            Draco began removing the decorative ribbons and paper from the package, unveiling a white set of summer robes with green flowers on it, a plain white undershirt, and what appeared to be a copy of a set of light grey dress robes he already had.

            “They’re paternity robes, Draco. The undershirt will allow you to wear any of your normal clothes on top while you’re pumping; you’ll just have to take the overlying robes completely off when you need to nurse,” Harry said.

            “That’s great; then I can wear my funeral robes tomorrow,” Draco replied, putting the package on the table and hugging Harry.

            “Yeah and you can wear the summer robes while swimming; she made it out of swimsuit material.”

            “That’s brilliant. And the dress robes? Did you have somewhere in mind for me to wear them to?” Draco asked, thinking that maybe Harry had arranged a special birthday dinner out.

            “Well yeah, I was hoping you could wear them tonight. We could all dress up and have a special family dinner,” Harry lied, keeping Lucius’ surprise a secret.

            “Yeah, alright. Jingly!” Draco called the elf, who appeared with a pop, bowing so low her nose touched the ground. “Take these up to my room and place them on my dresser.” He handed over the package and dismissed the elf.

            Later, while Draco and the babies were all napping, Harry went through Draco’s closet looking for a set of dress robes to borrow that would look good with Draco’s new set. He quickly came across the set that the new robes had been based off of. They were made out of the same flowing fabric, except that they were a couple of shades darker, and were trimmed with lacey white stars around the cuffs, instead of down the front.

            Harry was just trying the robes on, confirming that they fit alright, even if they were just a tad long, when he heard Teddy’s cry. He removed the dress robes and went next door to retrieve Teddy from the basinet in the nursery. He changed Teddy’s nappy and then took the baby downstairs to the drawing room.

            At four o’clock, around the usual end of naptime, the floo flared green and Hermione’s head appeared in the flames. She looked around, spotted Harry and said, “Oh good, you’re there. Is it alright if I come through now or should I wait until later?”

            “Come on through, but Draco’s still asleep and he’s still clueless,” Harry replied.

            Hermione came through the floo and then agreed to watch Teddy, while Harry went upstairs and got dressed. Draco was just waking, so Harry asked, “Draco, can I wear these robes tonight?”

            “Yeah, sure,” Draco replied, just sitting up in bed and yawning.

            The monitoring charm went off while Harry was flattening his collar. “I’ll go get them. Why don’t you try on the new robes?” Harry asked before going to the nursery.

            Draco proceeded to change into his new robes. When he went over to the nursery, Harry had three matching outfits out on one of the dressers. Luna had given the light blue rompers with the lion heads to them at the baby shower. Sev was on the floor, dressed only in a nappy and crawling towards the door, and Harry had Scorp at the changing table, changing the baby’s nappy.

            “Is this what you wanted the boys to wear?” Draco asked picking Sev up. He checked Sev’s nappy, making sure that Harry had changed it, as he suspected. Harry had, so he grabbed the largest of the three outfits and took Sev over to the rocking chair to change.

            “Yeah, only I’ve never shrunk clothes on a baby before,” Harry admitted, pinning Scorp’s nappy in place, before grabbing the middle sized outfit from the dresser. He had adjusted clothes on himself and on Draco, but he had a feeling it was riskier to do with a squirming baby. And the outfits needed to be shrunk, because they were all a size too big.

            “I’ll do it for you. Where’s Edward?” Draco asked, setting Sev back down onto the floor now that he’d shrunk the outfit to fit Sev perfectly.

            “He’s downstairs with Hermione. I hope you don’t mind that I invited her over for dinner,” Harry replied, handing Scorp, whose outfit looked far too large for him, over to Draco.

            Draco took Scorp with a put upon sigh, before shrinking the baby’s outfit and saying, “I guess it’s alright.” He would have to invite Pansy for Harry’s birthday and see how Harry liked it.

            “Thanks,” Harry said, picking Sev up from the middle of the room, where the baby was once again making a break for the door. He grabbed the third outfit, the smallest one, for Teddy and then went downstairs, with Draco and Scorp following behind him.

            Harry put Sev in the jumper and Draco put Scorp in the new swing, before Draco greeted Hermione and took Edward. Harry handed him the outfit and he changed the baby, shrinking the clothes to size. He checked Edward over and noticed that the red socks didn’t match the little outfit. Edward and Sev needed bibs too. Sev was already drooling down his chin, so Draco put Edward in the bouncer and went back upstairs to find matching socks and bibs.

            While Draco was upstairs, Lucius came into the sitting room and informed Harry and Hermione that the elves were setting up the patio for the party. Lucius asked if they could keep Draco preoccupied, preferably in the nursery, which overlooked the front of the house and so didn’t have a view of the patio. Harry and Hermione agreed. She Hermione took Teddy and Harry took Sev and Scorp back up to the nursery.

            “Draco, Scorp’s white socks really don’t match. Do you have any light blue ones or even yellow?” Hermione asked, making up an excuse for why they had come upstairs when Draco was just about to head back downstairs.

            “Yeah, sure. These are for Edward.” Draco handed a light blue bib and socks to Hermione, before going over to Scorp’s dresser and getting out a pair of light blue socks, which he also handed to Harry. Sev was sporting the new bib and once again crawling towards the door.

            “Draco, why didn’t you get Scorp a bib? The other babies are wearing them,” Harry wondered in an effort to stall.

            “Because Scorp doesn’t drool all over himself all day long and he doesn’t spit up his milk when I’m nursing him. He only needs one in his high chair,” Draco explained, taking Scorp from Harry and going over to the spare bed to nurse the baby. Scorp wasn’t crying to be fed, but it was almost dinner time and he didn’t want to risk soiling his new dress robes by feeding the babies mashed carrots, like he normally did every evening. “Ask a house elf for a bottle and offer it to Sev.”

            Harry picked Sev up, from where he was banging on the baby wards on the door. “You know, I think Sev just likes to see what happens when he hits the wards,” Harry said, sitting down on the bed with Sev next to Draco and offering Sev the bottle.

            “Yes, he does laugh and smile so,” Draco agreed.

            “Draco, do you want to nurse Teddy too?” Hermione asked. She didn’t know the schedule, but if Draco was feeding the other two, she at least wanted to offer to hand Teddy over.

            “Yeah, might as well. Otherwise he’ll be wanting to be nursed during dinner,” Draco replied, removing the panel and the breast pump from the side Scorp wasn’t using and taking Edward.

            Harry remembered his earlier conversation with Draco and it occurred to him that he still hadn’t got an answer to one of his questions. “Draco, how come last year you down played your birthday and tried not to tell me about it? No one was dead last year,” Harry said.

            “Last year was my seventeenth birthday, which by rights should’ve been a big ghastly ball to celebrate my coming of age. But Father was in Azkaban, Mother was in hiding, and I was pregnant. The time was not right and besides, I hate balls. I’d rather not have to sit through the tedium, so whenever those birthdays come up, I try to pretend like I’m not having a birthday that year,” Draco answered.

            “And does that work?” Harry asked.

            “No, not once before last year has it ever worked. But my luck seems to be changing or maybe it’s just that I’m the Lord Malfoy now and what I say goes. Father let me shoot down his ideas for an end of the war ball, an announcement of my marriage ball, and a ball to celebrate the births of my children. He even suggested we have a ball to announce Edward’s adoption,” Draco said shivering.

            “I had no idea you hated balls so much. I don’t remember you particularly disliking the Yule Ball,” Harry replied.

            “That wasn’t so bad. You’ve no idea how much worse pureblood balls are. They’re mostly old people dressing up in clothes that ought to have been outlawed a century ago. Then they play pureblood opera music and force you to dance around the floor with your grandmother,” Draco replied.

            “When was the last time you had one?” Harry asked.

            “When I turned eleven,” Draco replied.

            Harry was out of things to ask Draco about and he was sure he could hear the sounds of apparation cracks, which meant guests had to be arriving. Before the silence grew too long and he cracked under the pressure, Hermione jumped in and saved him by asking Draco about pureblood traditions, keeping Draco’s attention off of Harry. Once Sev was done with the bottle, Harry took his son over to the toy chest to find something to play with and let Hermione continue occupying Draco.

            Harry played with Sev until Draco finished nursing. Draco gave Teddy back to Hermione, picked up Scorp, and announced that he was going down to the drawing room. Hermione and Harry followed along behind with Teddy and Sev, but Draco was only on the staircase when he realized something odd was occurring.

            “What in Merlin’s name? How’d you get here, Pansy?” Draco asked, coming down the stairs. Pansy was in the hallway, which made her the first person he saw, but when he reached the bottom of the stairs and glanced out the sliding glass patio door, he saw that all of his friends were out there.

            “Happy birthday, Draco!” Pansy exclaimed.

            There was a roar of exclamations of, “Happy birthday!” as everyone else joined in.

            “Harry, did you do this?” Draco asked, turning to his husband.

            “Um no, your dad,” Harry replied as Lucius walked inside.

            “Draco, I wanted to throw you a proper party this year, to make up for last year. Congratulations on becoming a man,” Lucius said, hugging Draco and being careful not to squash Scorp, who was in Draco’s arms.

            “Thank you, Father,” Draco replied, letting Lucius lead him outside.

            Draco greeted his friends and then showed them his three sons. The witches had all been to the baby shower and met the babies there, but this was the first time Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott were seeing them. There was a bit of a commotion when Scorp screamed at Theo for getting too close. But Nott hadn’t performed any offensive magic all day and once he moved a few feet away, Scorp was fine.

            “It’s okay, Draco, I’ll just look at the little green haired one,” Theo Nott said, examining baby Edward.

            There was more talk and Harry and Hermione were mostly silent during it, not wanting to say anything and risk offending the Slytherins. Draco’s friends were being nice enough and they wanted to keep it that way, but there really wasn’t much they had in common. Then the elves put out the appetizers and everyone sat down to eat. Sev and Scorp went into their highchairs, only getting crackers instead of their usual messy mashed foods, and Teddy was put in the new swing, which Lucius had brought outside for the babies.

            Then the main course was served, during which the elves turned on George’s bubble machine. Sev and Scorp squealed in laughter at the bubbles. Scorp seemed happy to reach out and try to grab the bubbles, laughing loudly when one popped on his hand, but Sev fussed and kicked, frustrated at being trapped inside the highchair.

            “I think Sev wants down,” Harry said to Draco.

            “Well he can’t crawl out here; the pavement will scratch up his legs,” Draco replied.

            “What if I get the walker for him?” Harry asked.

            “Alright, but put his shoes on,” Draco agreed.

            Harry did just that. He set the baby loose in the hover-walker, before returning to his spot at the patio table between Draco and Hermione.

            Sev lurched around the patio, chasing bubbles and squealing in delight. The young adults watched as they ate. “Draco, why don’t you let the little black haired one chase after the bubbles too?” Milli asked.

            “Scorp can’t use a walker, because of what Weasley did to his leg,” Draco explained.

            All of the Slytherin eyes turned to Hermione, wondering what she had to say for Weasley. It was in all of the papers that the Granger witch was seeing the Weasley blood traitor, after all. But Hermione didn’t say anything, so Pansy asked, “Granger, what do you think of your boyfriend hitting Draco while he was pregnant?”

            “I think Ronald was a boorish imbecile, but he also was completely unaware that there was even the possibility that Draco was pregnant; he’s not very quick on the uptake,” Hermione replied, trying to take a neutral stance on the incident. On the one hand, she didn’t want to lay too much blame on Ron when he felt really bad about it; on the other, she didn’t want to start a fight with the Slytherins by defending the indefensible.

            “Well spoken, Hermione,” Draco replied, before changing the subject.

            After dinner, they let off the whiz bangs. The first of them started all three babies crying at the loud bangs, so Hermione muffled the sky while Draco and Harry calmed the boys down. Daphne even stepped in to help, being closest to Sev when the fireworks started. She patted the little blond baby’s back in the walker and said, “There, there.” She thought about picking Sev up, but he was already quieting down now that the sky was muffled.

            Sev looked up at the bright lights exploding in the sky and said, “Ooooo,” and then hissed.

            Teddy was the next to quiet down, so Harry put the baby back into the swing.

            Scorp, who Draco was bouncing gently up and down in his arms while he looked up at the images of the lion chasing the dragon in the sky, was still crying when the lights flickered out.

            “Draco, he’s not used to the whiz bangs; I’ll take him to the Manor for the rest of the evening,” Narcissa suggested, coming out onto the patio with a nappy bag slung around her shoulder.

            Draco agreed and handed Scorp over to his mother. Narcissa took the baby and flooed over to the Manor, safely out of range of the fireworks.

            Once Scorp was safely away with Narcissa, they set off another firework, resuming the show. The rest of the fireworks were also lion and dragon themed, except one that drew out the image of two wizards dueling and then showed those two wizards kissing. It was done with red, blue, yellow, and green fireworks in the sky, so the likeness wasn’t exact, but one of the wizards had distinctly pointy features and the other one had green eyes and a lightning bolt shape on the forehead.

            After the fireworks, Harry summoned an elf and asked for the Mega Box, also from George. He opened the box to find Weasley Authentic poppers, Wakefields Off the Record Glow in the Dark Gum, a Fanged Frisbee, a Tiny Twister, and Mysterious Midnight Moon Madness. They abandoned the poppers, for fear they would be too loud and bother the two remaining babies. They played with the Fanged Frisbee first, laughing when Sev kept trying to chase after the disk in the walker, even when the Frisbee went off into the vineyard.

            After they got bored of the Frisbee, Draco pulled out the Tiny Twister. He let it loose. on the patio table. But when the twister started to grow in size and went in the direction of Teddy in the swing, Hermione vanished it before it could cause any real danger.

            After that they tried out the Mysterious Midnight Moon Madness, which was a type of fluffy biscuit shaped sweet. When they ate it, the vision before their eyes switched from showing them a Villa in France to the surface of the dark side of the moon. The people were there, as was the table, Teddy in his swing, and Sev in the walker, but it looked like they had all been transported to the moon. The party goers looked around, exploring craters and picking up space rocks.

            “Draco, I bet it’d be wicked to play Quidditch after eating one of those,” Harry said.

            “Yeah, we’ll have to try that sometime,” Draco agreed.

            “You know, I bet the glow in the dark gum would work great out here,” Theo said.

            Everyone agree and they each returned to the table to get a piece of gum, which they chewed to produce huge glowing bubbles. The darkness of the moon and the glowing bubble gum combined to make a pretty cool effect. Sev, who hadn’t had any of the moon candy, was far more interested in chasing after the regular soap bubbles still being produced. The illusion lasted for thirty minutes before wearing off.

            Lucius, Narcissa, and Andy handled bath time that night, leaving Harry and Draco free to enjoy the party for once. The elves came out with an ice cream cake and they all sang to Draco, before he blew out the eighteen candles. While they were eating cake, the elves turned on the music and cleaned up.

            Pansy was the first person to pull a birthday gift out of her robes. The other guests followed suit, with various small packaged. Some of the gifts remained small, while others were unshrunk to reveal larger gifts. Draco received a quill set, a cloak, a case of snitches, a box of maple fudge, a basket of bath oils, a box of potions ingredients, and a picture frame with a photo of them all together at Vince’s funeral. While Draco was opening the presents from the others, Harry summoned Mipsy and asked her to bring the cologne and Extendable Ears, which Mipsy had wrapped. She did and he promptly handed them over to Draco.

            After the gifts, they danced. Theo was the first one to rise, asking Daphne to dance with him. Then Pansy and Blaise, Draco and Harry, and Milli, Tracey, and Hermione joined in, dancing to the fast paced drum beat of the wizard rock music. Milli, Tracey, and Hermione had been dating Greg, Vince, and Ron, respectively, but with Greg in Ministry custody, Vince dead, and Ron not welcome, there were three extra females at this gathering. They danced together the way teenage girls often do.

            Harry tried to remember back to his dancing lessons with Hermione, Ginny, and Luna last year. He had trouble keeping up with Draco, although Draco didn’t seem to mind. Draco even stopped to show Harry how to do a move or two.

            They danced until Narcissa came outside with Scorp, having returned from the Manor to put the babies to bed. “Draco, Scorp is refusing the bottle again,” Narcissa said.

            “Alright Mother.” Draco took Scorp from his mother and headed into the house to nurse his baby. When Harry moved to follow him in, he said, “No, you can stay out here with Hermione.” It wasn’t that he really wanted to force his husband to spend time with the muggleborn, but he was worried about what his friends might do to the witch if left alone.

            Harry agreed and stayed, sharing a dance before he realized that Milli and Tracey had disappeared. “Um, I want to check on Draco. Come with?” Harry asked Hermione.

            Hermione agreed, so Harry led the way into the house, where he found Draco sitting on the sofa in the drawing room with a blanket covering his chest, where Scorp was clearly suckling. Tracey and Milli were sitting on chairs nearby and talking amicably with Draco. Harry took the open seat next to Draco and Hermione took the seat on the far end, next to Harry. Before long Pansy, Blaise, Daphne, and Theo all came inside, effectively moving the party indoors.

            “Wow Draco, you really are the little mother,” Blaise commented.

            “Blaise!” Pansy hissed, elbowing Blaise in the ribs.

            “I prefer the term father. It’s like I told you before, my little Lord Malfoy can’t go without me,” Draco replied.

            “So the little black haired one will be the next Lord Malfoy?” Milli asked.

            “Yeah, he looks the most like me. Practically the only feature of Harry’s he’s got is the hair color,” Draco answered.

            “He’s adorable,” Tracey said.

            “They’re all adorable,” Daphne added. All of the girls murmured their agreement to that.

            There was more talk of how cute the babies were, which was mostly dominated by Draco and the witches. Then Draco asked about Greg. Milli informed them that Greg was still being held, with no word of when his trial would begin; Greg hadn’t even been before a warlock to set a trial date yet.

            Then Scorp stopped nursing and Draco kicked all of their guests out, so that he could put his son to sleep. Scorp really wasn’t hard to put down, but he was tired and wanted some alone time to unwind with his husband before bed. He pulled Harry into the bath with him, as he did every night.

            “I’m gonna talk to Kingsley about getting Goyle a date for his trial. He shouldn’t just be sitting in a cell forever,” Harry promised, thinking that he’d write Kingsley an owl Monday.

            Draco shushed Harry with a kiss. When they broke apart he said, “I’m tired. Worry about Greg on Monday when there’s something you can do about it.”

            Harry pressed his lips back to Draco’s, wishing his husband wasn’t tired and that they could sneak away to Grimmauld Place for a birthday shag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One birthday out of the way, one funeral to go.  
> Please Review!


	39. Chapter39

            The next day was Headmaster Severus Snape’s funeral. After five weeks of planning the biggest funeral of the year, and possibly the millennia, was finally here. After breakfast the Malfoy family packed a nappy bag, loaded the babies into their strollers flooed to the office of the Bodmin Moor Millenium Stadium. From there they walked over to the Quidditch stadium and up several flights of stairs until they arrived at their private box. Draco pulled the shrunken triplet swing out of the nappy bag and unshrunk it. They buckled Sev, Scorp, and Teddy in and spelled it on to entertain the babies while they got to work.

            Grandmother Druella arrived soon after and joined the family in their private box. Harry and Druella waited in the box with the babies, while Narcissa, Lucius, Draco, and Andy all went about setting up. There were Aurors all over, waiting to handle the enormous crowd they were expecting; Andy and Draco went to speak to them and make sure they knew the proper time to start letting people in. There was the band that had to get set up and Lucius made sure they were. Narcissa went to talk with the various speakers, making sure they had everything they needed.

            And then everything was ready and Andy, Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius each stood by one of the four sets of double doors. The doors opened and they passed out the day’s program to everyone, while directing people to their seats. The Aurors were there too, directing people and encouraging them along, so that they didn’t block the exit. It took a long time to get that many people seated, but eventually they did. The funeral started with a hymn led by a witch with a sultry voice and accompanied by the band.

            During the singing, Draco, Lucius, and Andy all took their seats up in their private box, while Narcissa stayed down below to give the first speech. Narcissa spoke about who Severus Snape was and where he’d come from. How he’d come from a less than ideal family with an abusive father, how he’d made a life and a name for himself based entirely off of shear hard work, determination, and natural talent. How he met his best friend Lily Evans and how he lost her. How he joined the Dark Lord’s following and why he soon thereafter turned away from the Dark Lord. How he became a double spy and a teacher at Hogwarts. And how he made it his mission in life to protect the children.

            After Narcissa’s speech, the band started playing again. She went up to their box and Harry came down. He was nervous; this was the first time he would speak about the war and if he had it his way, it would also be the last. But this was for a man who had given his life for Harry, to protect Harry, and to end the war, so Harry could honor that man today.

            Harry’s speech detailed just what Severus Snape had done during the war. How Snape had been a spy, ferrying information back and forth for both sides. How Snape had killed Dumbledore, but only because Snape would have died otherwise and because Dumbledore ordered Snape to. How Snape had protected the students at Hogwarts when the school was under Voldemort’s control. How Snape had lied to Voldemort, right up to the very end, and died to maintain that lie, just so that Harry would stand a chance at defeating Voldemort. Then he told everyone how Voldemort had turned on Snape, ordering Nagini to bite and kill Snape.

            Harry was crying when he finished his speech and stepped down from the stage on the Quidditch green. The band was once again playing while Harry made his way up to the box, passing Draco and Sev, who were on their way down for the next speech.

            Draco was wearing a set of billowing black robes that had belonged to Professor Snape. They were a bit long, so he was wearing his black shoes with the half inch heel. The robes looked good on him, thanks to his new undershirt. He held Sev on his left hip while he spoke.

            Draco told the audience how he wasn’t anyone special to Severus Snape. He was just another student; maybe he was one of Professor Snape’s favorite students, but all he really was, was another student who needed protecting. He spoke of the situation he was forced into upon his father’s incarceration in Azkaban and how he and his mother had spent the summer with the Dark Lord. How he had been ordered to kill Albus Dumbledore and how Professor Snape had taken the unbreakable vow to protect him from the Dark Lord and kill Dumbledore for him.

            Then he spoke of how Professor Snape had saved his life when Harry accidentally hit him with a very dark curse, cutting his chest open, leaving out the fact that Snape had invented the curse. How Snape had saved his mother, sneaking her out from under the Dark Lord’s nose and hiding her away in a Malfoy property that Snape cast the fidelius charm on. How Draco had gone to that house to hide out after he married Harry. Then he spoke of how Snape had stopped his pre-term labor twice after Ron Weasley hit him in the stomach. And how Snape had delivered Severus and Scorpius and ordered his mother and father to take Scorpius, who wasn’t breathing, to the nearest muggle hospital. How Snape had stayed with him and Severus when he was scared. That Snape had spent his last Christmas with him and his family. And that Snape loved Severus and Scorpius.

            Finally, Draco activated a memory ball of Severus Snape playing with Severus Malfoy, sharing with the Wizarding World that hidden part of Severus Snape that so few people ever got to see; the happy, carefree side, that laughed and played happily with a blond haired green eyed baby. When the memory came to an end, Draco held Severus up to the microphone and let his son babble a few hissing words in honor of a fallen hero.

            The music played again and Draco and Severus went back up to their private box. Lucius spoke next, telling of how unflinchingly and unwavering Severus Snape had played his part as a Death Eater. He gave the audience an inside look at what it meant to be a Death Eater; it was never pretty, but Snape endured it all without complaint. Then he told of the role Snape played in reuniting him with his family after he was released from Azkaban and the Malfoy family was already in hiding. He spoke of his gratitude for a man who had risked his life, to save Lucius’ family, simply because they needed saving and it was the right thing to do. He ended his speech by offering his late friend his heartfelt gratitude and a thank you, before the music once more started to play.

            The next speaker was a friend of Snape’s who read a poem, which was followed by another short song, and then by Professor McGonagall, who talked about what Snape had done as Headmaster.

            After that a former muggleborn Slytherin student talked about the difference Snape had made in her life, protecting her from the other Slytherins and their prejudices. There weren’t many mudbloods in Slytherin, but every once in a while there was one. It had been hard for her, but not unbearable, thanks to her cunning and her head of house, who she remembered chastising the portraits in the Slytherin common room for calling her a mudblood.

            The last speaker was Kingsley Shacklebolt, who got up on the stage and told the audience that Severus Snape was a hero and without Severus, Harry Malfoy wouldn’t have been able to end the war when he did, if ever. Then he announced that Severus Snape was posthumously being awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class, for his role in the defeat of Lord Voldemort. When he said that, the crowd broke out into very loud applause and cheering.

            The cheering eventually died down and the music once more began to play, as the funeral came to an end. Afterwards, Draco stayed in the private box with the babies, while the rest of the Malfoys went down onto the stage and shook hands with the various guests. It was a closed casket, because of Snape’s extensive snake bite wound, but a steady stream of mourners came up to touch the casket and say their goodbyes.

            Harry was down on the stage shaking hands with various people. The other speakers who had delivered eulogies were there and Harry wanted to have a word with Kingsley, so he slowly inched towards the Minister of Magic, taking his never ending line of fans waiting for him with him. Then he was close to Kingsley and all he had to do was switch places with Lucius. It was tricky, but there was a break in his line and no one was shaking his hand for several seconds, which allowed him to cut to the other side of Lucius, next to Kingsley.

            “Hello Harry,” Kingsley greeted, before returning to his own long line of witches and wizards who all wanted to shake his hand or have a word.

            Finally after an hour of shaking hands, Harry saw his chance. There were still a great number of people waiting in his own line, but Kingsley’s line had dissipated for the moment, so he ignored the old blue haired witch waiting for him, and turned to Kingsley instead. “Kingsley, may I have a word with you?” Harry asked.

            “Certainly, but this is a bit crowded; perhaps it’d be best to meet tomorrow or Monday in my office,” Kingsley replied.

            “I’ll keep it short; Gregory Goyle wasn’t a real Death Eater. He was just following along with his family and friends and was too stupid to know any better. He stopped Crabbe from killing me in the room of requirement and his mum saved my life. I’d like him released and barring that, I’d like a trial to be schedule for him, so I can go to it and testify for him,” Harry said.

            “I’m not familiar with his case, but I’ll look into it on Monday and owl you as soon as I get a trial date set for him,” Kingsley replied.

            Harry thanked Kingsley and turned back to his impatient witch with the blue hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next the Malfoys will be moving back to the Manor.  
> Please Review!


	40. Chapter40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to have another chapter in here about the move, but I decided to sum it up into two paragraphs and move forward instead.

            With the close of Headmaster Severus Snape’s funeral, it felt like the end of an era. The war was already a month in the past and it was time to start living their future. There were still a couple of funerals to be had, a few Death Eaters to round up, and Harry and Draco still had to receive their medals for their Order of Merlins, but for the most part, it was over and time to move on. Moving on meant moving back to Malfoy Manor.

            Sunday and Monday were spent moving their things from the villa to the Manor. Tuesday, during naptime, Hermione came over to the Manor and helped baby proof the place. The biggest dangers in the Manor were the staircases, the fireplaces, and the bathrooms. Together they charmed all of the fireplaces to be cool to the touch, put wards on the stairs that would keep all babies off of them, and warded the doors to the loos and the nursery.

            They had just finished charming the last fireplace, the one in the drawing room on the first floor, when Hermione said, “It’s a bit creepy, living with all these portraits on the walls. I think that one has been scowling at me.” She pointed to a portrait that was indeed scowling at her.

            “You there, what’s your name?” Harry asked, looking up at the scowling Malfoy.

            “Lord Nicholas Malfoy, you impertinent fool,” the portrait replied.

            “Why are you scowling at my friend?” Harry asked.

            “Because I am under the impression that she is a mudblood.”

            “Who told you that?” Harry wondered, thinking that it had to be Lucius. If that was the case, he was going to let his father-in-law have it. This was his house now too and his best friend was welcome in it; at least that’s what Draco said.

            “Bellatrix Lestrange. My other portrait was left in the guesthouse and dear Bella informed me of your escape.”

            Harry breathed a sigh of relief that Lucius wasn’t involved. “Well mudbloods are in right now, so you can either quit your scowling or be shut up in the attic with the other portraits.”

            “You wouldn’t dare. Do you know who I am?”

            “Yes, Lord Nicholas Malfoy, like you said, but Draco already shut away Brutus yesterday for scowling at the children and he told me that any other portrait caught scowling would be shut away as well.” Lucius had replaced Brutus’ portrait with a portrait of Eloise Malfoy, the most muggle-friendly relative he could find.

            “It’s a pity what this family has been reduced to, associating with mudbloods.”

            “May I, Harry?” Hermione asked.

            “Be my guest,” Harry replied.

            Hermione conjured a black curtain to put over the offensive portrait, before taking Nicholas down and setting him against the wall in the entranceway.

            “Thanks, I’ll have Narcissa put him up in the attic later. He can talk to the other unpleasant Malfoys up there,” Harry said, sitting down on the bottom stair to take a break.

            “I would imagine all of the Malfoy portraits are like him,” Hermione replied, sitting down on the stair next to Harry.

            “No, not really. Armand Malfoy, over in the entrance hall, seems very nice. He welcomed me into my new home when he was put back up. Oh and Lucius the first, Abraxas, and Septimus have all been nice to me too.”

            “You don’t find it weird having all these portraits around? I mean, I know we had tons of portraits at Hogwarts, but they were limited to the halls and corridors, not every single room.”

            “Actually, one of the portraits did really freak me out when I met him,” Harry admitted.

            “Which one?”

            “Merlin.”

            “They have a portrait of Merlin here? Where?” Portraits of Merlin were rare and outrageously valuable.

            “Yeah, in the loo.”

            “We just warded all the loo doors! How did I miss him?”

            “Um, I sort of covered him with a black cloth.”

            “You covered _Merlin_ , _the_ Merlin, with a black cloth?”

            “Yeah, well, he _really_ freaked me out. He’s in a loo, Hermione. I was trying to use the loo and then he’s talking to me and it was super creepy.”

            “What did he say?” Hermione asked.

            Harry blushed bright scarlet at the memory of the words Merlin had said to him. They weren’t the type of thing one repeated to a witch.

            When Harry refused to answer, Hermione asked, “Was it that bad?” Harry nodded. “Well why is Merlin even in the bathroom?”

            “Don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”

            “Alright, I will. Which loo?”

            “The second floor sitting room one.”

            Harry led Hermione back upstairs and took her around the corner of the L-shaped sitting room, indicating the loo that was off on the right, tucked behind the staircase. Sure enough, there was an antique gilded portrait frame, partially obscured by black cloth. Hermione lit the wall scones, lifted the cloth, and stared dumbly at the portrait of the most famous wizard of all time for several minutes.

            “Well, what do you want? You better not expect me to leave my frame just because you’re a witch,” Merlin said.

            “No sir. I was wondering why your portrait is hanging up here in the bathroom, sir?”

            “This is where my granddaughter Eloise hung me when she married Lord Armand Malfoy the second.”

            “Why did she hang you in a loo?”

            “It wasn’t a loo then. That was when this Manor was still young, back before the days of indoor plumbing when we used bedpans and had the house elves empty them. Nowadays witches and wizards are soft on the mangy creatures. In my day, we really knew how to work a house elf.”

            “What was this room back in your day, sir?” Harry asked, hoping to stop the tirade on house elves before Hermione went off on Merlin’s portrait.

            “It was the nursery. That fourth wall and door were added much later; back when I was hung this space was continuous with the sitting room and the perfect corner to put a crib. I used to sing to my great grandchildren and teach them about muggle rights. When they grew up, I did the same for their children. But little Lord Nicholas Malfoy didn’t like me and moved the nursery up to the third floor. Then when Lord Grincheux Malfoy bought into indoor plumbing, he decided the perfect place to make the first loo was right here. Bloody imbecile,” Merlin said.

            “But sir, why are you still in the loo? Surely someone in all those years would’ve moved you out to the foyer,” Hermione said.

            “Permanent sticking charm my granddaughter used to hang me with; Lord Draco Malfoy couldn’t even take me with him when he took all of the other portraits. He warded up my loo and said that was the best he could do for me and that he hoped I was still here when he came back. Luckily it’s a well-kept Malfoy family secret that I’m hung in this room and if any of the visitors did know that I’m normally here, they must’ve assumed I’d been tucked away with all the other portraits,” Merlin explained.

            “Wow,” Hermione said, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was talking to a portrait of Merlin in the loo. “So Draco’s related to you and he never even said anything.”

            “The last very many generations of Malfoys aren’t particularly proud of my pro-muggle ways,” Merlin replied.

            “Well I am. I’m being awarded an Order of Merlin and so is Draco. If it were possible, I’d move your portrait into the new nursery and let you sing to the children, sir,” Harry said. Of course that depended on Merlin’s potty mouth being confined to the potty.

            “But that’s not possible, because I’m permanently stuck right here for all eternity. And worst of all, this is one of only two portraits left of me. Sure they still have my picture on the chocolate frog cards, but all of my other portraits were burned during the witch hunts. So I’m stuck either here or at the Ministry,” Merlin said.

            “What if we hang a blank canvas up in the nursery? Couldn’t you migrate into it?” Hermione asked. Not that she was particularly thrilled with Merlin’s anti-elf rights stance, but this was Merlin after all, the greatest champion of muggle rights there ever was.

            “Or how about you remodel the house and turn this room back into the nursery?” Merlin suggested.

            “Um, this room is too small. We have three babies,” Harry explained.

            “There hasn’t been that many Malfoys in four generations and not even then did they have three babies all at the same time,” Merlin said.

            “Well sir? If we put up a blank canvas, would you move?” Harry asked.

            “That depends,” Merlin replied.

            “On what?”

            “On whether or not I’d be comfortable over there,” Merlin answered.

            Then there was a discussion with Merlin about just what would make him comfortable in a canvas. It was revealed that Merlin liked sunny fields of wildflowers, plush sofas, house elves to serve him a hearty supper, and wine. Harry said he would tell Draco and consider having an empty canvas painted portraying such items. Then Harry and Hermione retired back to the sitting room and discussed how unbelievable it was to have Merlin in one’s bathroom. Eventually, the conversation shifted to talk of Ron’s Auror training, which he had started just the day before.

            “I’m glad you invited me over today; it’s frightfully boring over at the Burrow with Ron gone. Charlie’s gone back to Romania and George is always at the joke shop. Ginny is around sometimes, but during the day she likes to visit her boyfriend, Michael,” Hermione said.

            “How was Ron’s first day of Auror training?”

            “Grueling, he said.”

            “Who was there with him?” Harry was wondering if anyone else he knew was there, because he still planned on being an Auror in a year or two.

            “There were loads of new recruits; it seems that Kingsley is offering to let anyone into the training program who fought in the final battle, whether they’ve got the NEWTs or not, he’s that desperate for new Aurors. Ron said that Isobel MacDougal, Dennis Creevey, Anthony Goldstein, Nigel Wolpert, Angelina Johnson, and Ernie Macmillan all showed up.”

            “Wow, that’s a lot of people we know!”

            “Yeah, but I doubt they’ll all make it to the end. Actually, Ron said that more than half of the recruits left as soon as it was obvious that you weren’t there. Apparently Romilda Vane and her lackeys were there giggling.”

            “I hope all this hubbub dies down soon.”

            “It will, Harry, give it time.”

            “What about the ones who stayed? Do you think they’ll make it?”

            “Most of them don’t have the proper background for it, not having decided to be an Auror until after Kingsley offered them the job. Ron said Nigel and Dennis were having the hardest times keeping up, but then they’re also the youngest. He thinks Anthony and Ernie are most likely to drop out, because he heard them griping when they learned how extensive and grueling Auror training was. Or they might transfer over to the hit wizard training program; they’re taking new applicants too.”

            “Yeah, I can imagine. I never pictured Izzy as an Auror and she wasn’t in all of our NEWT level classes either.”

            “Yeah, I was surprised by that one too, but Ron said she was really enthusiastic about it. Said she asked him if he wanted to partner up with her, but he’d already agreed to partner with Angelina,” Hermione said.

            “I wonder if they’ll all be above me on the Auror hierarchy when I join. I’m still not pregnant, so it’ll probably be two years before I can start training.”

            “Well you’re making top Auror pay right now, so you’ll probably still be ahead of them, even though they started first.”

            “Yeah, but I’ll be let go when I’m pregnant, because Robards said I could only take six months off without pay.”

            “But he doesn’t know you plan on being pregnant by then, does he?”

            “No, I don’t think I mentioned it.”

            “I was reading through our benefits and it said that we’re allowed a year off with pay for a pregnancy. Then we have the option of taking an additional two years off, without pay, but we get to keep the benefits and the job.”

            “Cool, I didn’t know that. Are you planning on…um…”

            “Merlin no! Angelina asked, so I looked it up for her. Ron and I aren’t nearly there and I’m planning on going back to finish my NEWTS next year.”

            “Draco wants to finish his NEWTS next year too. He said he’s gonna do most of his studying from home. He’s reading for history of magic already.”

            “I don’t know if I’d be able to do them from home.”

            “Well he said he’s gonna have tutors come and help him with the praticals, but he’s gonna learn the theory on his own.”

            “That’s really admirable of him. I thought about looking into that route right after the war when I thought the school might be too damaged to reopen. But when I asked Headmistress McGonagall about it at your baby shower, she said the school would be repaired for the fall.”

            “That’s great; I know Ginny wanted to go back, but I think that’s mostly because she’s Quidditch captain now.”

            Hermione then started talking about all the repairs McGonagall was having done to the school. It was rather boring for Harry, so he was glad when he heard Teddy’s fussing from the nursery. He went to get Teddy, Hermione following after him. He checked Teddy’s nappy and sure enough it was wet, so he took Teddy over to the changing table.

            “When did you get this red sea turtle set? I thought Teddy would use the red set Susan gave you,” Hermione said.

            “Draco ordered it when we decided to adopt Teddy, but it didn’t arrive until last week. He wants Teddy to have the same everything as the twins.”

            “That’s nice. Draco’s a really decent guy, isn’t he?”

            “That he is. Sometimes it still surprises me how thoughtful and caring his is, especially with the children,” Harry said, taking Teddy over to the rocking chairs to sit. Hermione sat in the other rocking chair, which didn’t match the first one, because the new matching one that Narcissa had ordered hadn’t arrived yet. Draco had pulled out the old Malfoy rocking chair to temporarily fill its place.

            “He is really good with babies.”

            “Yeah, it makes me think about something Lucius said to me… I don’t think you’re gonna believe this Hermione, but Lucius Malfoy actually suggested that Draco and I have a house full of children, Weasley style.”

            “You’re right, I don’t believe it. Are you thinking about it?”

            “Yeah, I am. It seems crazy to have three babies and be thinking about more, but I definitely want at least one daughter and it might be nice to have more than one.”

            “What does Draco say about it?”  
            “He said he just wants the one girl. I think he was willing to have more if I wanted them, but not if it was his dad who wanted them. He said four are enough.”

            “Do you really want to be pregnant more than once? Draco won’t be able to carry them, so any additional children will have to come from your body.”

            “I know… but I don’t know if I’ll like pregnancy yet, so I don’t know if I’ll want to do it more than once. Right now I’m just frustrated that I’m not pregnant already. Draco and I have been trying for a month now! I got Draco pregnant on the first try; I don’t know what’s taking so long.”

            “Harry, you do know that witches are only fertile a few days each month. If you don’t have sex during those days, there’s no way you’ll get pregnant and even if you do, it’s not guaranteed. It can take months to conceive.”

            “No, I didn’t know. How do you know which days to um, you know?” He and Draco had only been having sex about once a week, so it was possible that they had completely missed a short fertile window.

            “For a witch it comes in the middle of the menstrual cycle; typically two weeks after the period. Do you, um,” Hermione paused to gulp.

            “No!” Harry said, cutting Hermione off. “Never; there’s not anything like that.”

            “What about when you first found out? Wasn’t it because you were bleeding?”

            “I was only bleeding a tiny bit, because my cherry had popped.”

            “And besides that, you’ve never bled?”

            “Nope, never.”

            “Maybe you should ask Draco or someone else who knows more about Peverells than I do,” Hermione replied.

            While Hermione was talking, a monitoring charm went off, so Harry handed Teddy over to her and went to the cribs, where he found Scorpius just opening his eyes. “Hi Scorp; are you ready to get up?” Harry asked, bending over and lifting his baby out of the crib. He placed Scorp on his hip and walked back to Hermione. He respond to her last comment. “Yeah, I’ll ask him.”

            “Ask who what?” Draco asked, coming into the room after having been woken up by the monitoring charm. He went first to Sev’s crib and watched as Sev began to stir, in the moments before waking up.

            “Ask you about when Peverells are most capable of getting pregnant,” Harry replied.

            “What?” Draco asked confused as he picked Sev up, taking his son over to the floor near Harry and Hermione to play.

            “Witches have a defined period of fertility, in the middle of our cycle. I was just telling Harry that he could’ve missed his period of fertility this month and that could be why he’s not pregnant yet,” Hermione explained.

            “Yeah, but that’s in witches. Peverell wizards aren’t like that. We’re guys; we’re fertile all the time,” Draco replied.

            “But you’re humans; surely you must have a menstrual cycle,” Hermione argued.

            “That part of us comes from our centaur ancestors; we have an estrous cycle, like in horses. We don’t bleed, but reabsorb any excess lining. And because we’re male, we’re always producing gametes in our testes, so we’re always fertile.”

            “You’re always making sperm, you mean. What about eggs? Surely they must not always be present.”

            “Eggs are never present, because we don’t make them. We don’t make sperm either. What we make are mobile gametes that are intermediate in size between sperm and eggs. There’s a tube that connects the testes and the uterus and delivers our gametes to our uterus continuously, so we’re always fertile.”

            “But if your gametes are all the same, wouldn’t you continuously get yourself pregnant?”

            “No, there’s a mechanism that prevents self-fertilization. Each sex cell has markers on its surface and it won’t fuse with another sex cell with the same markers. It can also prevent fertilization from close relatives or anyone who just by chance happens to have the same markers.”

            “What happens when a Peverell wizard has sex with a witch? If you don’t make sperm, then you won’t be able to get a witch pregnant, right?”

            “Wrong. Our gametes can fuse with eggs or sperm, but the product of fusion with a sperm is less viable than the other options.”

            “And do you normally produce only two babies at a time? I would think that if both sets of gametes are produced in mass in the testes, millions of zygotes might be formed at a time.”

            “No to both. It’s normally only one baby at a time, because the tube that transfers the sex cells from the testes to the uterus normally only lets one cell through. The only way to have mass pregnancies like you’re describing would be to insert one’s own ejaculate into one’s anus. If it did happen, the pregnancy wouldn’t be viable, because our bodies are only designed to carry one baby.”

            “Oh, I had no idea…” Hermione trailed off in thought.

            “That’s often the case with muggleborns,” Draco replied.

            A discussion on the need for a wizard studies class for muggleborns followed, ending with Hermione taking to go research the idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think of Merlin’s portrait? I think his personality has been corrupted somewhat by spending a thousand years in the Malfoy’s loo and taking abuse from the more anti-muggle Malfoys, making him crasser.  
> Please Review!


	41. Chapter41

            Now that they were moved into the Manor, the next project to work on was cleaning up and fixing the guesthouse where Voldemort and Bellatrix had stayed. Lucius was mostly busy with the Malfoy businesses and Harry and Draco did most of the childcare, so that left Andy and Narcissa to order house elves to fix it up. Nagini’s shed skin was sold to an apothecary for an exorbitant sum, being from one of Voldemort’s horcruxes and all, while everything else that was left in the guesthouse was trashed. Windows were replaced, cracks filled in, exploded potion goop peeled off the walls, and the walls were repainted. It was a lot of work and took the elves a week.

            On Monday of that week, Harry received an owl from Kingsley. The letter informed him of the date for Gregory Goyle’s trial, which Kingsley had just had scheduled. There wasn’t much evidence against Greg, so with Harry and Draco’s testimonies, it was likely that the charges would be dropped. There was far more evidence against Mr. Charles Goyle, so his trial was still on the backburner. Charles might have to wait in the holding cell for another month before they could get him into a court room for the initial setting of the trial date.

            Monday afternoon, while Draco and the twins were asleep, Harry talked to Narcissa about the possibility of taking a family vacation to Hawaii for his and Draco’s anniversary. Narcissa liked the idea and agreed to book a hotel and arrange a portkey. There were still the activities to arrange, but he could work on that later. He wanted Draco’s opinion on what activities they should do, but he also wanted this trip to be a surprise.

            On Tuesday of that week, Harry received a notice that his entire Auror pay had been deposited into his and Draco’s combined Gringotts account. There was also a notice informing him of the upcoming transfer of funds for reimbursement of Scorpius’ hospital bill that would also be credited to their account, as well as the transfer of funds to the estate of the late Severus Snape, for the midwife services rendered. Severus Snape’s backpay would eventually go to Severus Malfoy and a good chunk of the reimbursement for Scorpius’ hospital bill Draco was planning on donating back to the NICU to thank the muggles who had saved the baby’s life.

            Wednesday Scorpius had another appointment at St. Mungo’s. Healer Pritchard was not encouraged by the miniscule bit of progress made so far. They were still at only doing ten repetitions once a day, so he told them to increase it to ten repetitions twice a day and come back next month. The good news was that the tests the healer did showed no liver damage from the muscle strengthening potion. Scorpius wasn’t a fan of the potion and Draco had long since ordered the house elves to mix it in with Scorp’s mashed food every day, so that he wouldn’t have to fight Scorp to take it.

            Thursday the new rocking chair arrived, that was identical to the first rocking chair, which meant the non-matching Malfoy rocking chair could be moved back to the Villa. The Villa nursery was set up with the complete Malfoy nursery set, because Andy was still living there and they planned on visiting on occasion. They’d move the set back once their daughter was born, but since they still weren’t even pregnant, they decided that the furniture would best be put to use at there.

            Friday morning the rest of Harry’s order from Madam Malkin arrived. Draco was surprised, but grateful to receive the paternity sleep shirts. They weren’t particularly sexy or stylish, but they were certainly better than wearing the black paternity robes to bed.

            Friday afternoon, while the twins were asleep, Harry and Lucius met George at their attorney’s office. They sat down and discussed the potential formal investment contract, each saying what terms they felt were fair. Harry asked for the least of the three, thinking that a simple return of the one thousand galleons in terms of money and or merchandise was more than enough. Lucius asked for the most, insisting that as the sole investor Harry should own at least seventy-five percent of the company. George was in the middle, thinking that George should retain ownership of at least fifty-one percent of the company, but that Harry should be repaid and receive a good portion of the company. Eventually the three of them came to an agreement which was pretty much George’s original plan. Harry would own forty percent of the company and receive dividends in galleons, as well as in merchandise. Mr. Shafiq wrote out the agreement and Harry and George both signed it. They shook hands, happy with the arrangement.

            The following Monday Harry got an owl informing him that the reimbursement for Scorpius’ hospital stay had been deposited in their vault, so Draco wrote an owl to Mr. Shafiq requesting that a fourth of it be donated to the muggle NICU. He also developed a photo of Scorpius by muggle means, which he put into a silver frame and had Harry deliver via muggle post.

            Tuesday the guesthouse was fully repaired and Andy moved in. It seemed that a connection to Harry Malfoy was good for pretty much anything at the moment, because Andy’s old house and Remus and Tonks’ fire damaged house had both been getting loads of witches and wizards looking at them. Andy had even gotten a few offers, but her real estate agent was advising her to hold out for higher offers.

            Wednesday Narcissa used a grooming charm to trim most everyone in the family’s hair. Harry had just gotten a trim when he returned from the final battle, but his hair grew quickly and he already needed another one. Draco and Scorp had been looking a bit shaggy, but now looked sharp. Sev had been the worst, with a very messy mop of overly long blond hair. Sev’s hair grew like Harry’s and the baby hadn’t had a trim in two months. Narcissa trimmed Sev’s hair extra short, knowing that it would grow out quickly. Teddy was the only baby to not receive a trim, because he still only had a few tufts of fluff on his head.

            Thursday was their court day at the Ministry to have Teddy’s adoption finalized. He was two months old now and had put on two inches in height and a pound in weight since they had gotten him. His hair was still on average blue, but his once mostly blue eyes had started to change colors as thoroughly as his hair. The little metamorphmagus had even started sporting eye colors that weren’t humanly possible, such as red, violet, and lime green.

            Draco and Harry were particularly looking forward to this day, when they would walk into court and swear before a warlock to love and raise Edward as their own.

            Draco spent the morning getting Edward ready. He woke up early, nursed, ate breakfast, and gave Rdward a quick bath. Then he just had to find something for Edward to wear.

            Scorp and Sev’s hand-me-downs worked for most occasions, but Draco didn’t want Edward to wear an old jumpsuit or old pair of pajamas; he wanted the baby to be dressed in something new, in a manner befitting a Malfoy. He went through the bags upon bags of clothes they’d been given at the baby shower until he came across a dress shirt and trousers. He put them on Edward, but they were way too big for the two month old, so he shrunk them until they fit.

            Once Edward was dressed, Draco brushed the maroon colored tuft of hair flat with a soft bristled brush and said, “You know, Father is not fond of red hair, even of such an unnatural shade. This a big day, do you think you could try blond or black hair? I’d even settle for brown. Hmm, my little darling?” To get his point across to the young baby, he tugged on a lock of his own blond hair. “See, blond?” Then he lifted Edward up and let the baby grab hold of his hair.

            When Draco extracted his hair from Edward’s clenched fist and lowered the baby back down to his lap he found that the baby had gotten the message and was now sporting a head of blond hair, identical in color to his own. “Brilliant, that looks loads better. Thank you, Edward,” Draco said, before looking for a pair of socks that would look alright with the shirt and trousers.

            “Draco, are you ready yet? We’re gonna be late if we don’t get going,” Harry said. They had to floo into the Ministry and walk to the courtroom on foot, because Teddy was too little to apparate. They could side along him, but that was risky and there really wasn’t need to incur such a risk when they could floo.

            “Almost, just grab the nappy bag and take Edward, will you?” Draco replied, standing up and passing the baby to Harry. He’d packed the nappy bag last night and he had everything but his dress robes on, because he didn’t want to risk ruining them before he’d even left the house. He quickly changed into his new set Harry had given him for his birthday. Then they were ready.

            “Help me wrap him in my cloak,” Harry said, holding Teddy in his arms and indicating where his invisibility cloak lay on the spare bed.

            Draco grabbed the invisibility cloak and they wrapped Teddy in it, before flooing to the Ministry and walking through the atrium to the lifts, and then down to the courtroom. Andy and Lucius met them there, having left after they did but arriving before, because they apparated there. Narcissa wanted to come too, but someone had to stay home with the twins, since there was no sense in getting caught out on the town with all three babies.

            Outside the courtroom, Draco unwrapped Teddy from the invisibility cloak and handed Teddy over to Andy. He removed the new stroller from the nappy bag, unshrunk it, and put the nappy bag in the basket, along with Harry’s cloak. Then Andy placed Teddy into the rear facing seat and they were ready. Lucius pulled out the camera and took a picture of the family and they walked into the courtroom together, as a family, pushing Teddy in the stroller.

            They had to wait while the Warlock Elphias Doge of the Wizengamot, who was in charge of this court, presided over the previous case. While they waited, Draco took a stuffed animal out of the nappy bag, unshunk it, and made it dance in front of Teddy, to entertain the baby. Teddy paid no mind to the fact that he was in a court of law and squealed and giggled as Draco played with him. Luckily this was a family court, so Warlock Doge was used to it and didn’t even ask them to cast a muffling charm.

            Then it was their turn to go before Warlock Doge. The Warlock entered the terms of the adoption agreement into court record and then asked Draco, Harry, and Andy to take binding oaths to abide by the terms laid forth in the contract. They all did as instructed. Then Warlock Doge instructed them to bring the child up and an identification spell was cast on the baby, making sure he was the correct baby mentioned in this contract. Teddy was, so Warlock Doge bound Teddy to their family with a familial adoption ritual, which would allow Teddy to henceforth be known as a Malfoy. Finally, Teddy was entered into record as the third son born to Draco and Harry Malfoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought that their anniversary was up next, but then when I look more closely at the timeline, I realized I’d forgotten Teddy’s adoption. Opps. Next chapter will be planning the anniversary, for sure this time :)


	42. Chapter42

            The first of the trials was Gregory Goyle’s, which started the Monday of the following week. It was a short trial without much evidence and the Ministry’s case rested mostly on the dark mark that was on Goyle’s arm. Narcissa and Andy watched the three babies for the day while Harry and Draco went to the Ministry to testify on Goyle’s behalf. They left when their testimony was over, not staying to hear the end. It went on into another day, but by the next afternoon, Harry received an owl from the prosecutor informing him that the warlocks had thrown the case out, because of lack of evidence.

            Not long after, another owl arrived. This time it was from the Goyle family, thanking Draco and Harry for their testimony and helping to get Greg’s trial moved up.

            Wednesday Draco was poring himself into his school work, setting himself a study schedule for his NEWTs, which meant that Harry was increasingly left alone with all three babies. Alone time away from Draco was good, because their anniversary was coming up quick; it was this Sunday and Narcissa had informed him that the portkey and hotel were all set. She even gave Harry a magazine full of advertisements for all of the activities available on the island. Whenever there was a lull in baby activity and Draco was off studying or brewing a potion, he would pull out the magazine and look over his options.

            The most obvious thing they would need for the trip was a rental car, so that they could get back and forth between the various attractions. There were many wizarding conveniences on the island, such as a hotel with a floo connection and several restaurants with connection to the floo, but most of the activities were muggle owned and operated. That combined with the fact that he had never been to the island and that they had three young babies meant that they wouldn’t be able to apparate.

            Harry knew he needed a car, but renting a car through the muggle car rental agency without Draco finding out was much more difficult. He didn’t have a phone and couldn’t just make a firecall. Luckily he had Hermione, who was muggleborn and knew how to make phone calls. Draco wouldn’t find out if she was the one doing it.

            Hermione owled Harry back the next morning. The car was arranged and she sent the confirmation number and all of the other pertinent information he might need.

            There were only three days left, so he started to panic about not having any activities planned. Draco was down on the first floor, brewing a NEWT level potion, so Harry was free to pore over the advertisement magazine in between caring for the three babies. He wasn’t normally left completely alone with them, but Andy and Narcissa were downstairs looking over offers Andy had received on her old house, which she was still trying to sell. They were around if an emergency occurred and Harry needed help, but he didn’t want to interrupt them if he didn’t have to.

            Harry wanted to prove that he could do it and look after all of his children on his own. The problem with that was that Sev was a highly active seven month old. Sev kept crawling over to Harry, pulling himself up, and trying to grab hold of Harry’s magazine. Harry was waiting for the lulls in activity, when Teddy was asleep and Scorp and Sev were playing in their jumpers or their swings. Then when all of the babies were occupied, he’d sneak out to the sitting room to read the magazine.

            There were several activities that looked exciting. Harry knew Draco liked to snorkel and there were boat tours that promised to take you out to a sea turtle populated area during the day or a manta ray populated area at night, both of which sounded perfect for Draco. There was a helicopter tour of the active Volcano on the south side of the island. Then there were zip line and kayaking tours of the rainforest and waterfalls. There were coffee, macadamia nut, and pineapple plantations to visit. And of course there were luaus. The question was how to choose which activities to book?

            Harry was just thinking that he definitely wanted to do the night snorkel with the manta rays, the macadamia nut planation, and a luau, when he heard Sev banging on the baby ward on the nursery door.

            “How did you get there, Sev? I left you in your jumper,” Harry said, putting down his magazine and picking Sev up.

            “Da da da dasss,” Sev said with a hiss.

            “Yes Sev, but Dada needs to arrange our trip to Hawaii, so Dada needs you to stay put. Now go play,” Harry said, putting Sev back into the jumper. Sev whined and fussed at being put down and didn’t seem to want to play in the jumper. “Alright, I’ll take you to the study with me, but Dada needs you to be quiet for a few minutes while I write Auntie Hermione an owl.”

            Harry took Sev out to the study and put the baby on the rug, while he sat at a desk and wrote Hermione with the information for the luau and snorkel cruises and the details on what he wanted to schedule. The macadamia nut planation was open to walkthroughs and didn’t need to be scheduled, so he only needed Hermione to book the luau for seven and the night snorkel for two.

            Harry had just finished writing down the details for the night snorkel. He turned to pick up the magazine again to get the details for the luau, but the magazine wasn’t there. “What the-?” he started to say, but cut himself off, because there was a baby in the room. He looked under the desk, to see if the magazine had fallen, but it wasn’t there. Looking around the room, he finally spotted it in Sev’s grasp. Sev was under a neighboring desk chewing on the pages.

            “Sev, how did you get that? You need to give it back to Daddy,” Harry said, picking Sev up and pulling the magazine away from the baby, making Sev cry. He sat back down at his desk, holding Sev on his hip, while he tried to smooth out the magazine, but Sev was still fussing at the loss of his toy.

            “Sssoor-ee-ussss,” Sev started to say in between his cries.

            “Sev, can’t you just give Daddy five minutes to finish writing Auntie Hermione?” Harry asked, abandoning the magazine to comfort Sev with both arms.

            “Ssooor-ee-uss,” Sev said and let out another wail.

            “Alright, I’ll take you back to the nursery, but you’re the one who wanted to play with Daddy,” Harry said, casting a notice-me-not charm on the magazine and parchment in case Draco came upstairs. He took Sev back to the nursery, where Scorpius was happily clapping his hands along with the lights and music of the swing and laughing.

            “Ssssooor-ee-ussssss,” Sev said, reaching out his little hands for Scorp, while Harry stopped the swing.

            “Hi!” Scorp replied.

            “Do you want to go in the swing with Scorp?” Harry asked, converting the swing to a two-seater and putting Sev in the second seat, next to Scorp, and strapping the baby in.

            Sev reached out his little hand and held hands with Scorp, while Harry turned the swing back on and found a blue soother for Sev. Sev stopped crying, so Harry sat down on the floor in front of the swing for a while and watched to make sure Sev was alright in the swing. Sev’s eyes closed and the baby was soon asleep, despite the fact that it was an hour before lunch and that Sev never took morning naps. But Harry wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he reclined Sev’s seat and went back to the study to finish his letter to Hermione. He sent the owl off and hid the magazine.

            It was half an hour before lunch and Draco always fed Sev and Scorp mush at this time, but Sev was still asleep, so Harry cast a monitoring charm on him and then took Scorp and Teddy downstairs in the twin stroller. He put Teddy in the basinet and strapped Scorp into the green highchair. Then he called Mipsy, who had moved back to the Manor with them, since she was originally a Manor house elf. The family of Gaunt house elves had moved back as well which meant a group of house elves that had been here at the Manor were now at the Villa.

            Mipsy materialized and Harry requested a bowl of mashed peas with Scorp’s potion mixed in, which she produced with a snap of her fingers.

            “That’s all Mipsy, you may go,” Harry said, dismissing the elf in the manner in which Draco used to deal with elves. He found that the Manor house elves preferred not to be thanked. “Do you want some peas Scorp?” He took the bib that was always draped over a bar on the back of the highchair and put it on Scorp. Then he scooped up a small bit of peas with the baby spoon and offered it to Scorp. The baby opened his mouth and Harry inserted the peas. “Are the peas nummy, Scorp?”

            “Pa pa paaas,” Scorp said, spitting out a bit of the green mixture back onto Harry.

            Harry wiped the peas off of his glasses and offered Scorp another bite. “Yes peas, very good, Scorp.”

            Harry continued to feed Scorp, but a few minutes later Teddy started fussing, so he put the spoon and the bowl down on the table, well away from Scorp. He’d learned that leaving them on the tray led to the babies trying to feed themselves, which led to baths. He picked Teddy up and checked his nappy, before concluding that Teddy was hungry. He summoned Mipsy for a bottle.

            While Harry was feeding Teddy, Scorp grew impatient in his highchair. He reached out for the food, but his arms weren’t long enough, so he slapped his little hands down on his tray and said, “Aaahhh!”

            “Sorry Scorp, Daddy only has so many hands,” Harry said, unable to reach the spoon with Teddy in one hand and the bottle in the other.

            Then Scorp started crying in earnest, because he was hungry. Harry was about to call an elf to fetch help, but then Draco walked in from the potion’s lab and picked Scorp up, immediately quieting the baby.

            “What’d you do to Scorp?” Draco asked, wiping off Scorp’s face, before removing the breast pump so that Scorp could nurse.

            “I had to stop feeding him his peas, because Teddy was crying for a bottle,” Harry explained.

            “Where’s Sev? Does my mother have him?”

            “No, he wanted in the swing and fell asleep.”

            “What in the world did you do to my baby to make him fall asleep before lunch?” Draco tried to think back to the last time Sev had fallen asleep before lunch and decided that it must have been about three months ago.

            “I was trying to write Hermione a letter, but he somehow got hold of my parchment when he was on the floor. I took it away from him and he started crying for Scorp and Scorp was in the swing.”

            “Why didn’t you just put him in his jumper before you tried to write your letter?”

            “I did, but he got out of it and was banging on the nursery wards. I was almost done with it, so I brought him into the study with me.”

            “How’d he get out?”

            “No idea,” Harry replied, putting the bottle down and moving Teddy to his shoulder to burp.

            Narcissa and Andy came into the room then and the house elves made their lunch appear. Draco ate with one hand, while holding Scorp with the other and Harry waited until Teddy burped to eat.

            “We got in the canvas depicting wildflowers, a sofa, and a banquet with house elves this morning. I’ll hang it in the nursery before I leave; Andy and I’ll be visiting the real estate agent,” Narcissa said as she finished her lunch.

            “Thank you Mother,” Draco replied with a nod. “Harry, can you try to feed Scorp the rest of his peas? I need to finish my potion.”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry agreed.

            Draco put Scorp back in his highchair, before leaving the room. Harry offered Scorp more peas. Scorp didn’t want them now that he had nursed, so Harry cast a stasis charm, before taking Teddy and Scorp back upstairs. He would have to offer Scorp the same peas again later, because Scorp’s potion was in those peas.

            Scorp’s left leg had to be exercised twice a day now, so Harry laid him down on a play mat. The baby wasn’t particularly fond of the exercises and liked to kick when he was doing them. If Scorp kicked out with the left leg then that would at least be helping to build strength in the overly thin leg, but Scorp only ever kicked with his right leg. When Scorp wasn’t kicking, he was trying to sit up or squirming in a way that made the process more difficult. But still, he only had to do ten of them and it was over quickly. Harry put the toy bar for the play gym onto the top of the play mat and let Scorp play.

            When naptime came, Sev was just waking up from his early nap and Teddy had just fallen asleep. Harry laid Scorp down and took Sev to the dining room for a bowl of mashed peas of his own, followed by a bottle. When Sev finished devouring the peas, Harry took the baby back upstairs and played with him.

            Normally Harry got at least an hour every afternoon when all three babies were asleep, but he didn’t get that hour of peace and quiet this day. Instead he got an opinionated Merlin telling him that the sofa in the field of wild flowers was too hard and too pink. Furthermore, the flowers were prettier back in Merlin’s day and the food on the buffet table was too abstract looking. But at least Merlin kept his potty mouth out of the nursery, as per Harry’s request.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry’s made a lot of progress with the babies, especially when you consider how scared he was to even touch his doll back in the room of requirement.  
> Up next will be their anniversary in Hawaii. I think the boys could use the vacation :)  
> Please review!


	43. Chapter43

            Saturday afternoon Harry and Narcissa prepared for the trip. Harry had a backpack with a wizard space charm on it and he packed enough clothes to last him and Draco for a week in Hawaii. He packed Draco’s shrunken anniversary gifts too, along with the confirmation numbers for the trip. The only problem was that they didn’t have enough shorts or own beach sandals, which meant they would have to pick some up.

            Once Harry was done packing, he went over to the nursery where Narcissa was packing a nappy bag with a wizard space charm on it. The boys were napping in their cribs, but with the muffling charms in place, the babies weren’t disturbed.

            “Do you need any help?” Harry asked.

            “No, I think I’ve got this. They don’t have any swim trunks, but we’ll buy those when we get there. I have everything else three babies could need for a week; I just have to fit it all in this bag. Why don’t you talk to Mipsy and make sure she knows we need her to go with us. Have her pack a bag of breast feeding supplies as well,” Narcissa replied.

            “What supplies? Doesn’t he just need the pump?”

            “No, he also needs the storage bottles to connect onto the pump; make sure you pack the pair with the wizard space charm on them. Oh and get a vat with a wizard space and stasis charms on it to store the milk; a small vat. Then he needs nipples and nipple rings to attach to the bottles, so that the babies can drink out of them.”

            “Alright,” Harry said, before going downstairs. Anyone else would call the elf to him, but he was disturbed with the fact that he’d been living here for weeks and hadn’t ever seen where the elves lived or even the kitchen. He’d told himself that the next time the opportunity came up, he was going to visit the elves in their natural habitat, the kitchen.

            Harry walked through the drawing room, which they hadn’t used since moving back to the Manor, to reach the kitchen. Even though it was a central connecting room, there was an unspoken rule in the house to stay out of the drawing room, because it was the room most used by Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The only rooms they used on the first floor were the dining room and the library. The drawing room was relegated to a passageway that connected the first floor landing to the wing with the dining room and kitchen.

            The kitchen was filled with elves actively making dinner. Harry looked around dumbstruck as he tried to pick Mipsy out of the crowd.

            “Master Harry Malfoy, sir! How may Tea Cup be assisting Master Harry Malfoy, sir, today, sir?” Tea Cup asked.

            “Have you seen Mipsy? I need to talk to her.”

            “Mipsy is in the elf room, sir,” Tea Cup said pointing Harry to one of the doors on the far side of the kitchen. One of those doors led to the potion room, another to a store room, the two on either side of the room led outside, and the remaining door was the elves’ quarters, where all of the elves in the house lived.

            It was to the middle most door Tea Cup was pointing now, so that was the door Harry opened. The room was dark compared to the kitchen and it took his eyes a minute to adjust, before he made out the sight of many elf eyes staring back at him. It looked like a store room, because it was long and narrow. On the floor on either side of the room were rows of large wooden crates stacked three high with little doorways cut into the boxes. Several of the boxes had little child elf heads sticking out of them, looking at him, while others were empty and showed only fresh straw within the crate. There were also crates stacked three high along the back wall, making for at least twenty-seven crates in the room, which was more than he had expected to see. Only about a dozen house elves had appeared when he was trapped in the cellar last Easter and he had assumed that every elf at the Manor had come to him. Now he realized that there must be more than two dozen elves living in this room.

            “Mipsy?” Harry called.

            A little elf head disappeared back into its crate and Mipsy’s head appeared in its place. She climbed down from her crate in the uppermost row and came to stand in front of Harry. “Yes Master Harry Malfoy, sir?” Mipsy asked.

            “Is that your baby, Mipsy?” Harry asked, pointing to the little head that was once again sticking out of the crate she’d come from.

            “Yes Master Harry Malfoy sir, Krispy is Mipsy’s son, sir. But Krispy is not a baby anymore, sir. Krispy is almost old enough to be learning to serve our family, sir,” Mipsy replied.

            “Oh, um, well I was gonna ask you to come with us on vacation, but I didn’t know you had a kid. Maybe I should ask some other elf.” This was the sort of thing one couldn’t know if one never checked in on their elves. He was glad he’d come and found out, before he took a mother away from her child.

            “Master Harry Malfoy should be asking Mipsy, sir. Pickles will take care of Krispy, while Mipsy is serving our family, sir.”

            “Who’s Pickles?”

            “Pickles is Mipsy’s husband and Krispy’s father, sir. Pickles works on the farm, sir.”

            “What farm?”

            “The Malfoy farm, sir, is on the other side of the forest, sir. All of the Manor’s food comes from either the farm or the vineyard and garden in France, sir. The Malfoy farm also produces many potions ingredients, sir.”

            At first Harry wasn’t convinced that it was okay for Mipsy to leave her son, but she was quite insistent that Krispy was fine. Krispy was the equivalent of a pre-teen, which meant he was more than old enough to stay with his father for a week. And what’s more was that Mipsy’s sister Nippy, who had a baby elf and couldn’t leave the elf closet, was in the box right next to Mipsy’s box; Nippy would look in on Krispy and Pickles. Satisfied with the arrangement, Harry repeated Narcissa’s request and Mipsy said she’d pack the supplies right away. He was about to thank her, but then stopped himself just in time, knowing that the elves would be very angry if he did so in front of their children.

            Harry went back to the nursery and discovered that Teddy was awake. Narcissa had the baby swaying in her arms, but he was still fussing.

            “The nappy bag is in the closet, ready to go,” Narcissa said, handing Teddy over to Harry.

            “Great. Our bag is in our closet, also ready to go and Mipsy is packing the nursing bag,” Harry replied, sitting down in the rocking chair with Teddy in his lap. Teddy quieted down, changing his hair from orange to black.

            “Our portkey leaves at six tomorrow night, right after dinner,” Narcissa said.

            “That late?” Harry asked. He had assumed they would leave in the morning so that they could settle into their hotel and have the day to go shopping and go to the beach for a bit.

            “Yes, well Hawaii is ten hours behind us, so it’ll be eight in the morning there. I suggest we all take a nap before we go. I’ve instructed the elves to add a simple sleeping draught to our lunch, so that we sleep through the afternoon; Andy will keep an eye on the babies while we sleep.”

            Harry agreed and Narcissa excused herself to go pack her and Lucius’ things.

            Harry spent the rest of the day taking care of the babies and spending time with Draco. Sunday morning he woke up to breakfast in bed. Draco was there with him, with a baby on each nipple. Sev was sitting in the middle of the bed, between him and Draco, drinking from a bottle Draco was holding.

            “Here, let me get that,” Harry said, taking Sev’s bottle from Draco with his right hand and popping a slice of fruit into his mouth with the other. He’d never had breakfast in bed and was touched that Draco had done something like this for him.

            They finished feeding the babies and then ate themselves, before getting dressed for the day. “Harry, have you seen my new dress robes? I wanted to wear them tonight for our dinner at Grimmauld Place,” Draco said.

            “No I haven’t,” Harry lied pulling on his robes so that he could go back to playing with the babies and not give his secret away. Draco thought that they were having dinner and a shag at Grimmauld Place for their anniversary and didn’t know the robes had been packed.

            “Mipsy!” Draco called and waited a moment for Mipsy to materialize. “Where are my new dress robes?”

            “Mipsy hung Master Draco Malfoy, sir’s dress robes in the closet, sir,” Mipsy replied.

            “Well they aren’t here,” Draco replied.

            “Mipsy will ask the other house elves and check the laundry, Master, sir.”

            Draco dismissed the elf and went about his day, changing nappies and dressing the babies in summer suits to take outside to play. Andy came over and sat with them in the garden. There was a patch of grass in the middle of all of the flowers and they spread out a blanket to sit on. Andy held Teddy, while Harry held Draco in his lap and Scorp sat up by himself, playing with a toy. Sev kept crawling away off of the blanket, to get to the grass. Draco got up and pulled Sev back onto the blanket the first few times, but then he got distracted by a kiss from Harry. Sev made it all the way onto the grass, where he pulled out a few blades of, which he stuck into his mouth.

            “Sev, no,” Andy said, getting up to take the grass away from the baby. She put Sev back in the middle of the blanket.

            “What did he do?” Draco wondered, breaking away from Harry’s kiss.

            “Tried to eat the grass,” Andy explained.

            “Ew, he definitely takes after you, Harry,” Draco replied.

            “I don’t remember ever eating grass,” Harry said. Sure he had been starved plenty and there were times he was so hungry he felt like he could eat grass, but he’d always been trapped in his cupboard or in Dudley’s second bedroom during those times.

            “And I’m sure Sev won’t remember it either. But you have to admit that the one who takes after me isn’t eating the grass and the one that takes after you is.”

            “Scorp can’t reach the grass, so that’s not a fair assessment,” Harry retorted, looking at Scorp as the baby pressed a button on his toy. It made the toy display a unicorn prancing about in midair.

            “I bet you that even if we put Scorp on the grass he won’t eat it.”

            “You’re on,” Harry said.

            Draco picked Scorp up, moving the baby to sit on the grass at the edge of the blanket. “This is grass Scorp, what do you want to do with it?” Draco asked, taking one of Scorp’s little hands and moving it to touch the blades of grass.

            “Fa fa da,” Scorp said, as he pulled at the grass. He came away with a fistful of it, which he brought to his face to look at. Then he flung it away, saying, “Ahhh ba da a blah.” He reached for his unicorn toy, which had been left behind on the blanket.

            Draco put Scorp back next to the toy and returned himself to Harry’s lap. “So what did I win, Malfoy?” Draco asked.

            “A kiss from your husband. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year already,” Harry replied, leaning in to kiss Draco.

            They stayed outside on the grass for a few hours, before going back inside. It was almost lunch time, so Harry and Draco went to the dining room to feed Sev and Scorp, while Andy took Teddy up to the nursery.

            When Mipsy delivered the bowls of mashed peas, Draco asked, “Mipsy! Have you found my robes?”

            Keeping Draco in the dark about the quickly approaching trip was becoming more and more daunting of a task. Harry didn’t want to tell Draco he’d packed the robes, but he also didn’t want Draco to freak out about the robes or punish Mipsy for losing them. He didn’t know what he should do.

            Narcissa joined them in the dining room just then and having overheard Draco’s question said, “Draco, I’ve sent the robes out to be cleaned. There was a stain on them, but they should be back after dinner.”

            “A stain our elves couldn’t get out?” Draco asked curiously.

            “Yes, but don’t worry. The cleaning witch assured me that she could get it out,” Narcissa replied.

            “Alright mother, as long as I get it back in time for our dinner tonight.”

            Then Draco and Harry got to work feeding Sev and Scorp. After that they had lunch with Andy and Lucius joining them. By the end of lunch, Lucius, Narcissa, and Harry were all yawning and Draco was passed out in his chair. Mipsy transported Draco to his bed and the rest of them went to sleep, while Andy watched the boys.

 

* * *

 

 

            “Harry! Harry, wake up!” Draco exclaimed urgently.

            “Hmm?” Harry asked groggily.

            “Wake up, we over slept. Why didn’t we hear Sev and Scorp wake up?”

            “Relax, Andy’s watching them.”

            “It’s already five and we’re still in bed. We were supposed to be up at four and be at Grimmauld Place by five thirty. We’re missing our anniversary.”

            “Relax, we’re not going to Grimmauld Place and we’re not leaving for our anniversary thing until six.”

            “What? We’re not going to Grimmauld Place? Where are we going?”

            “It’s a surprise.”

            “Alright, well then I’ll just go find my mother and see if my dress robes are back.”

            “She didn’t send them out to the cleaners; I already packed them. What you’re wearing is fine.”

            “I wanted to wear my new dress robes.”

            “You can wear them later.”

            “Where are we going?”

            “Where do you want to go?”

            “Somewhere I can bugger you in private.”

            “Your mum booked our rooms on opposite sides of the hotel; is that private enough for you?”

            “Rooms? You’re taking my parents with us on our anniversary?” Draco asked skeptically.

            “Yes; someone has to watch the children and we’re going for a week.”

            “We’re going for a week and you’re just telling me this now? I have to pack!”

            “I already packed; bag’s in the closet.”

            Draco went to the closet and pulled out the backpack, checking to make sure there were enough clothes, which there were, mostly. “Won’t we need way more dress robes? There are only two sets in here.”

            “No, we’re going someplace too hot for dress robes.”

            “Alright then.” Draco grabbed Harry’s anniversary presents and added them to the bag. “What about the babies?”

            “Your mum packed for them. And Mipsy packed nursing supplies.”

            “Alright, well if we’re really ready to go, then I’ll just check on the boys.”

            “You should eat something before we go; we won’t be eating for a while,” Harry said.

            Draco went to the nursery and picked up Scorp from Andy, before going down to the dining room. He ate dinner alone while nursing Scorp and then he went back upstairs, wondering what was going on. He thought about ordering an elf to tell him where they were going, but he would find out very soon. If Harry had gone through all this trouble to keep it a surprise, he decided not to spoil it and instead changed a few nappies and cleaned a few faces.

            As the minutes ticked closer to six, the Malfoy family went outside to the garden to wait for the portkey to be activated. Narcissa put Teddy in the infant carrier on her chest, while Harry carried Sev and Draco carried Scorp. Scorp disliked magical travel, so he’d already been given his favorite unicorn blanket to hold onto for the journey, even though it was way too hot for the Hawaiian weather. Lucius had all four of their bags and Mipsy just had herself.

            They each reached out and grabbed onto an old tea kettle. Scorp was screaming at the top of his lungs and they felt like they were being pulled through space by a hook in their guts. Sev and Teddy were crying too and then they came back down onto a jagged black lava rock surface.

            “Hawaii?” Draco asked over Scorp’s screams, recognizing the island.

            The ground was soft and had a lot of give to it when they landed, indicating that there was a cushioning charm on the rock. Sev and Teddy stopped crying as soon as they landed, but Scorp continued to wail.

            “Yes.” Lucius pulled a soother and a camera out of the bags he was carrying. He handed Scorp the soother and took a snapshot of the family’s arrival on the island. “I’m going to apparate to the car rental agency and be back to pick you up by the time you make it to the road,” Lucius said, before apparating away.

            “Mipsy, meet us at the hotel. You can stay with the hotel’s house elves until we call you,” Narcissa said to the elf. Providing free lodging to house elves was one of the many benefits of staying at a wizarding resort.

            Harry, Draco, and Narcissa began their hike and Scorp’s screams died down. The baby was somewhat comforted by the unicorn blanket and the soother, but he was still letting his displeasure be heard with a soft whimper. They weren’t far from a trail, but it was a fifteen minute hike until they were at the road. There was no good place to sit and rest and Lucius had yet to return, so they walked on until they reached the gas station at the corner.

            A minivan with Lucius behind the wheel arrived right when they were finally sitting down. Harry thought there was something odd about seeing the wizard behind the wheel and he hoped that Lucius was a good driver.

            “I already installed the carseats,” Lucius said, getting out of the car to help. “Sev’s in the back with Harry.”

            Harry climbed over the folded middle seat, wondering how the seat could possibly fold with the carseats in place. Sev’s carseat was easy enough to figure out. It was of a larger size than they had practiced with in the room of requirement, but it was rear facing and had straps that responded to the same spell that all of the baby things used. Sev was strapped in and ready to go by the time Lucius had the middle seat up.

            The two infant carseats were in fact in the trunk with their bags, but Lucius had installed the carseat bases, so it only took a minute to get them out of the trunk and snap them into place. Draco crawled in carrying Scorp and fastened the baby into a carseat, tucking the too hot unicorn blanket in next to Scorp. He cast a cooling charm on it so that Scorp didn’t get too hot. Narcissa fastened Teddy into the carseat closest to the door. Then Lucius and Narcissa climbed in and they were off to the store. They got out the twin stroller and transferred Teddy and Scorp’s carseats onto it. They had to take Sev all of the way out of his carseat, so Harry carried him. Lucius had the camera again and snapped a few photos.

            The store was a small wizarding clothing shop that didn’t appear between two muggle shops until Lucius tapped the wall with his wand in the right place. They went inside and purchased two sets of swim trunks with matching swim shirts for each of the three babies, several pairs of shorts for Harry, a new dress for Narcissa, and a pair of sandals for everyone in the family, except for the two youngest babies. Then they piled back into the van and made the hour trip up to the north side of the island.

            Sev and Teddy fell asleep almost immediately, but Scorp stayed awake and started whining after fifteen minutes.

            “Harry, can you reach the nappy bag? I need a toy to entertain Scorp,” Draco said.

            “Are you sure he’s not hungry? Did you feed him?” Harry asked, but was already trying to reach behind him to get the nappy bag from the trunk.

            “Yeah, I nursed him right before we left. Andy said she fed the other two bottles,” Draco replied.

            Harry couldn’t get the nappy bag up without getting out and pulling the stroller off of it, but he was able to reach in and pull a shrunken toy out. He unshrunk the toy and passed it up to Draco, who gave it to Scorp. Scorp stopped whining when the lights and music started.

            “Thanks. Can you see if you can find a soother too? I don’t know what happened to the one Father gave him, but I think he’s still agitated from the portkey,” Draco said.

            Harry reached back into the nappy bag, but couldn’t differentiate the soothers from the other objects in the bag, so he cast a summoning charm and waited for the soothers to soar into his hand. Nine soothers came, including one that wiggled its way out from under Scorp and the unicorn blanket in the infant carseat. He picked out a green one and handed it to Draco, before putting the rest back in the nappy bag.

            By the time they reached the hotel, Scorp had settled back into his normal happy self and Teddy needed a nappy change. Narcissa went to check them in, while Harry and Draco put Scorp and Teddy in the stroller. They put Harry and Draco’s backpack and the nappy bag in the basket of the stroller. Lucius went to park the car, while and Harry and Draco went into the resort. They changed Teddy in a bathroom in the lobby of the hotel and then went out to find Narcissa, who had finished checking them in.

            They went to Narcissa and Lucius’ room, where they changed into their swim clothes. Then they called Mipsy and let the elf know they’d be at the beach. They spent the morning down by the beach in front of the resort, casting sun screen charms liberally with Lucius snapping a few more photos. By lunch time, everyone was tired and Teddy was asleep. Lucius and Narcissa took the three babies back to their room, while Draco and Harry went to find their own room.

            It was a white room with a large white bed in the middle of it. There was a closet and a bathroom complete with an indoor Jacuzzi. There was also a patio overlooking the beach. Mipsy had delivered their backpack and unpacked their clothes.

            Harry and Draco started off with a shower to wash the sand off. Draco had never tried this before, but he wanted to do something special for Harry for their anniversary and had been mentally talking himself into this all week. He lowered himself onto his knees and pressed his closed lips to Harry’s hard dick. It suddenly looked bigger and much more daunting now that it was right in front of his face. He thought about backing out, getting back up, and just wanking Harry. But he wasn’t a coward and Harry had done this to him many times. He grabbed the soap and cleaned Harry’s bits thoroughly to stall for time as he tried to calm his racing heart enough to do this.

            Harry wasn’t sure what Draco was up to, because it was a bit odd for Draco to sink to his knees just to wash Harry’s cock. But he wasn’t complaining, since Draco’s hands were on him. His cock head kept brushing against Draco’s soft cheek, not to mention that his head was still spinning from when Draco had kissed his cock head with those delicious lips. Then there was something warm and wet on his cock and he looked down to find Draco’s mouth on his bits! He almost came at the sight alone.

            Harry’s eyes rolled back in his head and his heart rate went through the roof. He gasped for breath and let out a moan of intense arousal. He almost fell, but his arms flailed out and found purchase on a metal rail that wrapped around the shower at waist height. He held onto the rail tightly and looked down to watch what Draco was doing. Draco only had the head of the cock in his mouth, but his tongue was probing the underside of the cock, creating the most pleasant bolts of ecstasy imaginable.

            Then Draco looked up and made eye contact with Harry, before forcing more of Harry’s cock into his hot mouth. Harry felt so good he wanted to cum like that. He would’ve, if Draco hadn’t started gagging around his bits. Draco looked up at him with wide eyes as Harry quickly grabbed hold of Draco’s head. He pushed it back, off of his cock and pulled Draco up into his arms. “What happened?” Harry asked.

            Draco shook his head and tried to catch his breath.

            “You don’t have to do it; I don’t mind,” Harry said reaching his arms around Draco and rubbing his hands up and down Draco’s back.

            “I wanted to. It was bigger than I was expecting.”

            “It’s okay. I was about to cum anyway and I didn’t want to do it in your mouth.”

            “Oh, do you want me to wank you then?”

            “Yeah,” Harry answered and then Draco’s hands were back on his cock.

            Harry was already so close from the blowjob that he came in just a few strokes. He let the water from the shower wash away his spunk, before leading Draco out of the shower. They dried off and then made their way, naked, to the large white bed.

            “I wanted to do something for you for our anniversary,” Draco said, sitting on the bed and thinking that he was a complete failure at giving head.

            “It was great, really. I only stopped you, because I was about to cum. Now I wanted to give you something,” Harry said, going to the dresser and retrieving the small silver gift bag with Draco’s anniversary presents. “Here.” He handed the bag over to Draco.

            “Thanks; I got you something too,” Draco said, taking the gift bag with a smile and going to the dresser, where he had left his own present for Harry. He pulled out a long rectangular parcel and a flatter, rectangular parcel, both wrapped in a pale gold paper covered with golden snitches. “These are for you.” Draco handed Harry’s presents over and sat on the bed to open his own. There was lotion of a brand Draco had never seen before in a strange tube that was probably muggle in design. There was also cologne in a strange apparently muggle bottle. He smelled both and they were alright, so he decided to try them. Obviously it’d be easier for Harry to buy him things in the muggle world, where Harry didn’t have to worry about being mobbed by fans.

            Harry opened the larger of the two presents to find a small broom, only about fifteen inches long. “Um, thanks; I guess the boys can ride this,” Harry said.

            “They better not; it’s shrunken, not a toy,” Draco replied, rubbing the lotion into his hands and then smelling them. He had had to shrink the broom to get it in the box.

            “Oh, um, right,” Harry said and unshrunk the broom. It was a Firebolt III.

            “I know it’s not your Firebolt and that yours meant a lot to you, because your godfather gave it to you, but I thought you’d like a new one.”

            “Yeah, this is really great. Thank you. Maybe we can go for a fly sometime; do you think your old Nimbus two thousand one can keep up?” Harry asked with a smirk.

            “No, probably not. How is it you’ve managed to go through so many brooms, when I’ve only had the one?” Draco asked leaning in for a kiss.

            “Bad luck, I guess,” Harry replied, pulling away from the kiss. “Open your other gift.”

            “Alright, if you’ll open yours,” Draco said, pulling out the small black box from the bag. Inside he found a nice pair of cuff links. “Great, I can wear these with my dress robes when we go out for dinner.”

            Harry opened the flatter parcel Draco had given him and found three sets of stylish jeans like the ones he’d worn back in the room of requirement; they each had a different wash on them, but they were all the low rise jeans Draco liked. “And I can wear these when we go out,” he said.

            “Or when we stay in,” Draco replied with a smirk. “They’re the first off of the assembly line, so you don’t need to wear pants underneath. Look on the back.”

            Harry turned the jeans over to see the Malfoy emblem on the rear pocket. “Let me put them on.” Harry had never tried to wear jeans without pants before, but these were surprisingly soft and comfortable on the inside, because of the charms.

            “They look good.”

            “Thanks. Now let’s try out some of that lotion I got you,” Harry said, grabbing Draco’s lotion and motioning for Draco to turn over, so that he could massage Draco’s back.  
            The massage turned to fiery kisses and sensual caresses and ended with a brilliant anniversary shag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They have a week in Hawaii, so there’ll be at least another chapter of fluff :)
> 
> Please Review!


	44. Chapter44

            Draco woke at five in the evening when Mipsy brought Scorp to him to nurse. They had one of the hotel elves bring Scorp a crib, so that the baby didn’t have to make the return trip, because he hated apparating.

            With the ten hour time difference, the babies were all awake at ten at night, thinking that it was morning. Draco fed Scorp again and then he and Harry went on a midnight walk along the beach with Scorp. They walked until they reached the muggle resort that neighbored the wizarding resort, where there was a stage with a muggle show going on. They found seats on the lawn and watched as men and women in grass skirts danced. The men even twirled lit sticks about and the women shook musical gourds.

            After the show, they ate at a restaurant, before walking back to their hotel and climbing in the Jacuzzi. They stayed up until two in the morning, when Draco fed Scorp again and gave him a baby sized dose of sleeping draught. Draco and Harry took some as well, so that they would be able to sleep.

            Monday morning the family flooed to a wizarding restaurant on the east side of the island. From there they walked to the macadamia nut plantation, with Harry pushing the twins in the stroller and Draco carrying Teddy in an infant carrier on his chest. It was a mile walk, but the scenery was nice and a good backdrop for Lucius’ pictures; it was better than driving all day across the island. Sev started fussing at being confined to the stroller for so long, so when they got to the plantation, Teddy was put into the stroller and the adults took turns carrying Sev as they walked around looking at the macadamia nut trees and the machinery and taking photos of various family members in front of the trees.

            The best part was when they got to sample the various flavors of macadamia nuts. Harry used his muggle money to buy a couple cases for Draco, putting them into the basket of the stroller without shrinking them, because this was a muggle establishment. Before leaving the plantation, they took the babies into the bathroom to change their nappies. Then they began the walk back to the wizarding restaurant that they had flooed into. There was a garden in back of the restaurant and they stopped there to feed the babies. Then they went inside and had brunch, all the while Lucius snapping photos.

            After brunch they flooed back to the resort and Draco and Harry went snorkeling. Lucius and Narcissa sat out on the beach with the three babies and fed Sev and Scorp mashed peas; Lucius took a rather humorous picture of two babies on the beach with green peas all over their faces and Scorp tightly clutching an out of place unicorn blanket on the sand. After that they kayaked around the cove, with the babies strapped into infant carriers on their chests. The waves were mild, making the kayaks float along smoothly, and meant that Narcissa’s photos didn’t jostle around too badly.

            After that, they returned to their rooms to shower and dress for dinner. The babies were fed and then they all went to dinner and a show at the resort. It was a bit too hot for their dress robes, but they wore them anyway and cast cooling charms on themselves. This show was similar to the muggle show, except that the addition of magic made it more exciting, especially the way the fire leapt into the shapes of animals and danced over a pond of water. Scorp cried at first, but calmed down when Narcissa gave the baby his unicorn blanket and a soother.

            Teddy and Scorp fell asleep during the show and were laid down in the stroller. Sev stayed up the longest, but he was obviously exhausted and cranky by the time the show ended at seven. They all went to bed early that night. Again Harry and Draco woke up for a few hours in the middle of the night, which they used to fuck.

            Wednesday morning they drove to a coffee plantation. It was an hour’s drive south, so while they were down that way, they stopped at a store to buy souvenirs and then a grocery store to buy a bunch of the tropical fruit to take back to the Manor. With stasis charms and shrinking charms, they could stalk up here and have enough to last for a year. Lucius snapped a particularly candid photo of the look on Draco’s face when he saw all of his favorite fruits perfectly ripe and lined up next to each other at the store.

            After that they went snorkeling at one of the beaches down there in order to see a different spectrum of fish. They had lunch at a muggle place by the beach and Lucius again had the camera out, before loading everyone back into the car. They drove east, up into the mountainous area surrounding the volcanoes, to get a look at the scenery. They stopped a few times along the way and picked lilikoi from vines growing along the road, which Harry had to have a picture of, because it was just too unbelievable that the most delicious fruit was a weed along the road. When they stopped, they also did nappy changes and fed any babies who were hungry, before continuing on, up the volcano. They stopped for dinner at a restaurant up that way and posed for a family photo, before turning around and heading back to the resort.

            It was late by the time they returned, so they all went straight to bed. Draco and Harry woke up early to cries of hunger from Scorp, who Draco nursed, before having a house elf take the baby to his parents’ room. Draco fell back asleep naturally after letting Harry bugger himself on Draco’s cock. Harry had to take half a sip of the sleeping draught to get back to sleep for the few hours left before proper breakfast time.

            Thursday they stayed around the resort area, going for a hike along a nearby trail where there were loads of old petroglyphs carved into the lava rocks and a few caves; Lucius had the camera again. The first part of the trail was muggle, but when they went further in there was a lava tube that was only accessible to wizards. They walked into the tube with lit wands and looked at the moving wizarding petroglyphs, even posing for another family photo. At the end of the lava tube they came out at an ancient wizarding town. It was populated by wizards trying to make money off of tourist by selling pictures or paintings of the tourists or various souvenirs. The family stopped and had a portrait painted of all of them in front of a waterfall. With seven people and only a few hours to paint while they sat for a rest, it wasn’t very detailed, but it would still capture a bit of each of them in painted form.

            They added the painting to the basket under the stroller and began the walk back to the hotel. The walk was a lot more tedious now that they were tired, especially because Sev was fed up with sitting in the stroller and wanted out. Narcissa ended up apparating Sev back to the hotel to let him play in his jumper while the rest of the family walked back. Sev did much better with side along apparition than Scorp and Teddy did, so he only cried for a minute before forgetting about the unpleasantness.

            They went to a luau that night that was held at a large arboretum filled with native plants, magical and muggle. One of the staff members took yet another picture of them. There was pork from a pig that was cooked in a hole in the ground and a large feast, followed by a show with dancing. There were even some geese and peacocks strutting around the garden.

            “See Harry, we’re not the only ones with peacocks in our yard,” Draco whispered into Harry’s ear when a male bird with a large plume of blue and green iridescent feathers came up to them.

            “Yeah, I see that,” Harry replied, before giving Draco a quick kiss.

            That night Harry thought of the peacocks with their large poncy feathers when he fucked himself on Draco’s cock. With all of the fucking they were doing this week, he was sure he’d be pregnant by the end of it.

            Friday morning they spent at the resort down by the beach and let the babies play in the sand. Sev put another handful of sand in his mouth, but spit it back out when it didn’t taste good.

            Scorp kept reaching his hands out towards the ocean and whining. Then he said, “Wa-er,” so of course they had to take him in. Draco sat down in the shallows with Scorp on his lap and let the baby play in the water. Harry took Sev in, sitting next to Draco in the shallows. Except Sev wasn’t happy just sitting there and kept grabbing onto Harry to pull himself up. Finally Harry got the message and held both of Sev’s little hands, helping the baby stand up in the water. Narcissa captured it all in a memory ball.

            They had lunch at the resort and afterwards they drove north to a dock where they boarded a charter boat, which ferried them around the island to various snorkeling areas. Three of the adults would get in the water and snorkel at a time, while one of them stayed on the boat with the babies and snapped the occasional photo; mostly Lucius and Narcissa took turns on baby duty, so that Harry and Draco could enjoy their delayed honeymoon. The boat took them back to shore in time for dinner, followed by a wizard play.

            Friday night Draco tried to suck Harry’s cock again. Since he had Harry cast the mouth extension charms, it went much more smoothly. Harry was totally blown away by the fact that Draco had wanted to try again, when he hadn’t even asked. He’d never had it, so he didn’t know what he was missing. Now that he did, he looked at Draco in awe of the pleasure his husband had given him. It was the best anniversary present he could ever hope for and made him love Draco even more.

            Saturday morning they spent down by the beach, with Narcissa and Lucius watching the babies and Harry and Draco snorkeling. They had lunch before driving to a local museum where they spent the afternoon looking at exhibits depicting the history of art, culture, and magic on the island. They had dinner nearby. Then Harry and Draco were dropped off at the boating dock, while Lucius and Narcissa took the babies back to the resort for the evening.

            The charter boat took Harry and Draco out to Manta Ray Bay, south of the resort, but not very far south. While the boat was zooming them off to the south, they were given wetsuits to wear over their swimsuits, and snorkels. As the sun set the charter boats began to gather in a circle. The captain explained that the manta rays were attracted to the light, because they eat plankton that was attracted to the light. Half of the boats were filled with scuba divers who would go down thirty feet to the ocean floor and shine their flashlights up and the other half contained snorkelers, who would stay at the surface and shine their flashlights down.

            The biggest problem with this snorkeling cruise was that it was operated by muggles and there were muggle passengers on the boat with them. It was difficult to keep their wands hidden and they couldn’t pull them out to cast warming charms whenever they wanted. And while the water was certainly much warmer than in England, the sun was down and they were in the water for long enough to be very cold by the end of it. Luckily the muggles got distracted by the manta rays and Harry was able to pull his wand out and cast warming charms.

            The manta rays were beautiful giant dark grey creatures. Harry had seen one in the room of requirement, but this was so much better than seeing one. There must have been over a dozen in the water that night and they came right up to them, within two or three inches, before doing a barrel roll away. They had white under bellies with spots on them that the muggle captain used to identify individuals, but it was the large opened mouths scooping up the plankton filled water that impressed Harry the most.

            They stayed in the water for forty-five minutes before everyone got back on the boat and left, returning to the dock. Harry surreptitiously cast drying spells on himself and Draco when the other muggles were busy changing out of their wetsuits. It was late by the time they returned to the dock where Lucius was waiting with the car.

            When they got back to their hotel room Harry and Draco had one last anniversary fuck in Hawaii. They took their time and made it last. By the end of it, Harry really needed his trustee soothing potion, because he’d never fucked so much so often in his life. He thought his arse must have taken a bucket full of sperm over this past week and he was positive that come two weeks from now, he’d be pregnant with Draco’s baby. He went to sleep that night with his hand over his belly, hoping his daughter was forming inside him at that very moment; he’d have a wonderful story to tell her someday about her conception during their Hawaiian vacation, minus the kinky details.

            Sunday morning they went snorkeling at the beach one last time, before packing up, returning the car, and taking a portkey home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Draco’s come a long way with the blowjob. He’s no longer the apprehensive passive partner, but an active participant, thinking about Harry’s wants and needs.


	45. Chapter45

            Harry, Draco, Hermione, and even Ron were awarded Order of Merlins, First Class, in early July. Hermione and Ron were shocked to be included, because they had assumed it would just be Harry getting the award. And then hardly anyone ever appreciated Ron’s role in the war, but Kingsley was one of the few who did. It was Kingsley who insisted that all four be given the award, along with Headmaster Snape, post-humorously.

            In Mid-July Mr. Charles Goyle’s trial was held. All of the other trials had clear cut cases, one way or the other. His was the first case of someone who had committed plenty of crimes in the first war, but hardly any at all in the second. Draco, Harry, Lucius, Gregory Goyle, and Elizabeth Goyle all testified on his behalf. After a weeklong trial, he received two years in Azkaban, followed by in-house incarceration and community Service. It was certainly a more favorable outcome than life in Azkaban or the kiss, like the rest of the Death Eaters received.

            In the days after Mr. Goyle’s trial Hermione came over to the Manor and helped Harry with a little project. Harry was tired of having to hold Sev’s glass bottle. Muggles used plastic bottles, which were lighter and softer, so the babies could hold them themselves. They didn’t have plastic in the wizarding world, but Harry thought that it should be straightforward to modify the glass bottles to make them more like plastic ones and therefor safe for Sev to handle on his own. However, he was having trouble with the execution and Hermione agreed to come over to help.

            “Where’s Draco?” Hermione asked, helping Harry putting Sev, Scorp, and Teddy down for their naps.

            “Downstairs in the potions lab; he’s concentrating on history of magic and potions first,” Harry explained, giving Teddy a soother.

            “Oh I can’t wait until school starts and I can do my NEWTs as well,” Hermione said wistfully, clearly envious of Draco.

            “One thing at a time, Hermione; you’re supposed to be developing the perfect charmed bottle with me,” Harry replied, casting a monitoring charm on the three babies.

            “Not to worry; I’ll call if the little ones get up to anything,” Merlin said with a wink from the sofa in the field of wildflowers.

            “Thanks Merlin,” Harry replied, before leading Hermione into the study.

            “So Merlin’s working out alright in your nursery then?” Hermione asked.

            “Yeah, it seems he’s really good with kids. He has this unicorn that he took from one of the paintings up in the attic and the boys just love it.”

            “That’s great.”

            “Yeah. Okay, so here are all of the bottles we have and I was thinking that a cushioning charm, an antigravity charm, and a shatter prevention charm should do it, but when I tried casting all three together, the glass shattered,” Harry said, before demonstrating the problem. Sure enough, when the third charm was cast, the bottle shattered.

            “Hmmm… maybe those three spells don’t combine well or it might be something about the order you’re combining them. Do you have any material on those charms I could read?”

            “Yeah, I’ve got the books open on this other desk.” Harry indicated two thick tombs.

            Hermione set to work reading the books for half an hour and then concluded that the problem was the order in which the charms were added, because the shatter prevention charm needed to be added first. She tried the new order of spells on a bottle and it didn’t shatter, so she made another one just like it. Then she and Harry set about testing the bottles to make sure that they were perfectly safe for babies to hold. They dropped the bottles from great heights and flung them against the brick fireplace and they didn’t shatter. Then they hit each other with the bottles and it felt like being hit with a pillow or a marshmallow, thanks to the cushioning charm. And the bottles were light enough for a baby to lift, thanks to the anti-gravity charm. Satisfied with their positive results, they charmed the rest of the bottles and then cleaned up the mess from the shattered ones.

            Afterwards they went into the sitting room to talk. Hermione told Harry all about a recent romantic date Ron had arranged, which was bloody amazing, given that Ron had done it all.

            Draco came into the room, finished with his potions work for the day, right when Hermione was telling Harry about the look Ron had gotten when her dad had mentioned marriage during the recent visit to her parents’: flushed white as a ghost with his mouth hanging open.

            Harry and Draco laughed and Draco said, “I think I might like your dad.” Draco had never liked a muggle before, but he hadn’t met one either. From his grandmother’s children’s stories he got the impression that muggles were horrible ogres who ate people. He knew that couldn’t be right and Hermione was always talking about muggles as if they were normal people.

            Then Harry told Draco about their success with the bottles and called Mipsy for a bottle to show him. Draco was a bit skeptical, but agreed to try them. And then the monitoring charm went off in the nursery and Merlin said, “Ahoy! Little Remmy is awake.”

            The three of them migrated into the nursery, where Harry picked up Teddy and changed his nappy. Then the baby was put on his stomach on a play mat with toys splayed out in front of him. Teddy was three months old now and getting bigger and stronger every day.

            Sev and Scorp were up a few minutes later. Harry put Sev on the floor and handed the baby one of the newly charmed bottles filled with milk, while Draco took Scorp to the spare bed and nursed.

            “I think Sev likes it,” Harry said, watching Sev with the charmed bottle closely, in case something went wrong.

            “He would; he’s the one who thinks I can be replaced with a bit of glass and rubber,” Draco replied. “Scorp on the other hand, knows I’m irreplaceable.”

            “That’s something he gets from me,” Harry said.

            Sev finished the bottle without incident and proceeded to crawl around the nursery until he reached the toy box. He pulled himself up onto his knees and started pulling every single toy out. “Sev, do you have to make such a mess? How about you just play with one?” Harry asked, activating a toy in hopes that the lights and moving picture show would captivate Sev for a few minutes.

            It worked; Sev grabbed the toy and sat back on his feet to play, a few feet away from Teddy. Teddy heard the noise from Sev’s toy and lifted his head and chest up off of the floor, in order to get a better look. Teddy pushed harder with his right hand than his left and rolled over onto his back, which gave him a perfect view of Sev and the toy, so he laughed.

            “Did you just see that?” Hermione asked.

            “Yeah,” Harry agreed.

            “No,” Draco answered. He was still on the bed, finishing nursing Scorp.

            “Teddy just rolled over,” Harry relayed.

            “Great. Good job Edward,” Draco said. “Why don’t you trade me Scorp for Edward and I’ll feed him before dinner?”

            “Yeah, alright, and maybe I can teach Scorp to roll over,” Harry said picking Teddy up. “It’s about time Scorp learned, don’t you think?” Harry handed Teddy to Draco and Draco handed Scorp over to Harry.

            “No, I’m not sure his leg has made nearly enough improvement to allow him to roll over,” Draco said, positioning Edward at his nipple to latch on.

            “But even if his leg never improves, eventually he should gain enough strength in the rest of his body to compensate for his disability and allow him to roll over and even crawl on just the three limbs,” Hermione said getting down onto the floor with Harry, who was positioning Scorp on his tummy on the play mat.

            “Huh? Is this some muggle thing?” Draco asked, from the bed.

            “Partly; in the muggle world crippled babies stay crippled and are given prostheses to enhance mobility,” Hermione replied.

            “Alright Scorp, Daddy wants you to roll over, like this,” Harry said, helping the baby to roll over, before putting Scorp back on his stomach. “Now you try it.”

            Scorp lifted up his head, raised his chest off of the ground, and said, “No.”

            No was Scorp’s new word. It almost always got him a response, so he had quickly started saying it to everything, except when Draco asked the baby if he wanted to nurse. Scorp had said no to that once and learned his lesson that no wasn’t a word to be used with nursing.

            “Yes Scorp, roll over,” Harry encouraged and then showed the baby how to do it again, before putting Scorp back onto his tummy once more.

            “Hi. Hi. Hi!” Scorp yelled, getting Sev’s attention.

            “Sssoor-ee-usss?” Sev asked, looking up from the toy he’d been playing with. Sev dropped the toy and crawled over to Scorp.

            “Try to turn over Scorp,” Harry repeated.

            “Sssssooor-ee-usssss!” Sev repeated, before crying.

            “Sev, give Scorp a chance,” Harry said, picking Sev up.

            Once Sev had been taken away, Scorp started crying.

            “Just pick him up already; he can’t do it,” Draco said, hating to hear his baby crying.

            “You have to leave him like that so that he can learn. If you don’t make him try, he’ll never get it,” Hermione replied.

            “Just exercise his leg and let him be for the day; he’s not strong enough,” Draco replied, standing up with Edward in one hand and the breast pump in the other. If Hermione and Harry didn’t pick his baby up already, he was going to do it himself. But he never got that far, because there was a loud crack and Scorpius vanished and reappeared on his back, looking up, but still crying. “See what you did? And he hates apparating.”

            “Did he just apparate to flip over?” Hermione asked, while Harry put Sev down and picked Scorp up.

            “Yeah, it looks that way,” Harry replied, rubbing Scorp’s back and bouncing the baby gently to try to sooth him.

            “They do it every once in a while. There was one time I woke up with Scorp in bed with me when I know he wasn’t in bed with me when I went to sleep,” Draco replied, sitting back down with Edward.

            “And there was that time last month I left Sev in his jumper and he got out when I wasn’t looking,” Harry said.

            “Wow; I never would have thought that a baby would spontaneously apparate instead of just turning over,” Hermione replied.

            “Well maybe if it were physically possible they’d just turn over, but Scorp isn’t there yet. Healer Pritchard said to keep him at ten reps twice a day,” Draco said.

            “I exercised his leg once already this morning,” Harry replied, going over to the bin of soothers and getting one for Scorp. “Scorp, are you ready to do your leg exercises?”

            “No,” Scorp answered pulling out the soother in between quiet sobs, before sticking the soother back in.

            “You’ve got him agitated. You should wait until after dinner to do it,” Draco said.

            “Alright. Do you want to swing Scorp?” Harry asked and Scorp nodded, so he put the baby in the swing.

            “You know, you should really take him to a muggle doctor and see if there’s anything they can do for that leg; muggle healing can complement magical healing,” Hermione said.

            “I already took him to a muggle healer and he said that they would put him in braces for years just to straighten the leg and that was all they could do,” Draco replied.

            “But that was months ago. Maybe now that the leg is straight there will be something else that can be done,” Hermione insisted.

            “How about we give healer Pritchard another year to build up strength in that leg, before going back to the muggles again?” Harry suggested, proposing a middle ground.

            Draco and Hermione both agreed to that and Hermione had to get going, so she apparated back to the Burrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next Draco and Ron will finally have it out.


	46. Chapter46

            It was Monday morning of the last week in July and Harry was back at the Manor watching the children, as usual. Draco was not in the potion lab where he claimed to be going. Instead he flooed to Grimmauld Place, where he waited for Hermione and Weasley. He didn’t feel bad about lying to Harry, because this secret was for Harry and besides, Harry had both Narcissa and Andy around to help him if the babies got to be too much.

            “Draco!” Hermione’s voice called out from the other room. “Are you here?”

            “Yes, I’m in the kitchen,” Draco replied.

            Draco heard the sounds of two sets of footsteps and then Hermione and Ron came through the doorway into the kitchen.

            “The place looks a lot better,” Ron said.

            “That would be my elves,” Draco replied.

            “Alright, so let’s get to work. What do you need help with, Draco?” Hermione asked.

            “Not killing, maiming, hexing, or insulting your boyfriend, mostly,” Draco answered.

            Ron groaned, rolled his eyes, and said, “She meant with the party, Malfoy.”

            “Right, well I think I’ve got the party under control. As you know from the invitations you received, it’s a surprise barbeque to be held on the lawn where the baby shower was. I sent similar invitations with the passcode on them to all of Harry’s friends; let me know if I missed someone, but I think I got them all. The elves will cook and make the cake and I’ll be decorating with a portable swamp. I picked it up in Diagon Alley at the joke shop Harry likes,” Draco replied.

            “Why are you decorating with a portable swamp?” Hermione asked.

            “Because it’s the type of thing Harry likes. Why does Weasley’s brother sell them?” Draco asked.

            “Because they sell, yeah? What Hermione means is how are you gonna make a portable swamp into a passible birthday whatever?” Ron asked.

            “I saw this muggle thing called a slip-n-slide one time when Harry took me to a muggle store. Have either of you heard of such a thing?” Draco asked.

            “Yes,” Hermione said.

            “No,” Ron said.

            “Ron, it’s basically a water toy muggles place on the lawn. They run and slide on the wet surface,” Hermione said.

            “Yes, well the swamp will provide the wet surface and I’ve charmed pieces of cloth to be impervious to water; they slide easily on wet surfaces. Harry can run and slide in the swamp using the cloth like a sled,” Draco replied.

            “Alright, so swamp slippery slide,” Ron said. “Do you have any alternative activities in case it doesn’t work?”

            “There are bubbles left over from my birthday, but I think the swamp will work. I talked to George Weasley about making the swamp free of any noxious swamp-like odors and there’s a portion of it that will just be clear water, like a lake. The invitations say to bring your swimsuits, so if the swamp idea doesn’t work, everyone can just go swimming,” Draco explained.

            “Brilliant,” Ron replied.

            “Alright, so if you have everything planned out Draco, why did you ask us here?” Hermione asked.

            “This may come as a shock to you, Hermione, but Ronald and I don’t generally get along. Harry has said that he wishes that we did. Instead of leaving this up to chance, I’ve asked Ronald here today so that we can iron out our disagreements in the hopes of Harry’s birthday going smoothly. Hermione, I asked over to make sure we don’t kill each other,” Draco answered.

            Draco had originally hoped that Weasley would fade away, like a pesky mosquito, but the more he pushed Harry away from his friend, the more Harry clung on. Harry said that Ron and Hagrid were the first friends he ever made and the idea of losing them seemed painful. Harry had already lost so many people and Draco had recently come to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to be responsible for the loss of anyone from Harry’s life. Instead, he’d tolerate Weasley’s presence on the periphery of Harry’s life and wait for Weasley to destroy the friendship. Weasley had done it twice before and Draco just had to wait for him to do it again.

            “That’s a great idea, Draco! I’m a bit surprised you thought of it, but I’m flattered that you thought of me to supervise,” Hermione said.

            “Okay, well I’ll start. I think you’re a foul git who’s called Hermione filthy names and insulted me and Harry every chance you’ve gotten. You gave Katie Bell that cursed necklace that nearly killed her and you poisoned me. You’re self-serving and managed to worm your way into an Order of Merlin you don’t deserve,” Ron said.

            “Ronald! Why’d you say all that? You’re making this worse!” Hermione hissed.

            “He said to!” Ron retorted.

            “This was meant as a way to air your feelings not berate him!” Hermione insisted.

            “Well I’m sure he’s gonna do the same to me,” Ron replied.

            “Alright, Draco, what do you have to say to Ron?” Hermione asked.

            “Well I was going to say that he caused me to almost miscarry twice. It’s his fault Scorpius almost died when he was born and will be crippled for the rest of his life. But now I’d like to add that Ron’s petty, spiteful, and delusional. If you think I was the only kid at Hogwarts who the Dark Lord was courting, then you’re mental too. I know for a fact that the Carrow twins, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle all had Dark Marks. I don’t know which of the kids in the older years had them, but to assume that everything bad that happened was my fault, without evidence of my guilt, is daft. I wasn’t even in Hogsmeade the weekend Katie Bell was cursed. As for you, I wasn’t even aware you had been poisoned,” Draco said, but he was thinking that right about now he’d like to know who had poisoned Weasley, so he could thank them for their valiant efforts. He did in fact know which of the older kids had marks, but he refused to mention any names that weren’t public knowledge, because he didn’t want to incriminate his friends and family. One of the Carrow twins was in holding awaiting trial and the other was dead.

            “Ron, we all know Draco wasn’t there when Katie was given that cursed necklace,” Hermione said.

            “Alright, he wasn’t the person who directly gave Katie the necklace, but I still think he was involved. And there is absolutely no way my poisoning wasn’t him. Slughorn said that he bought the bottle of mead to give to Dumbledore and Voldemort ordered Malfoy to off Dumbledore. Malfoy poisoned the mead in hopes of killing Dumbledore,” Ron said.

            “My one and only plan for killing Dumbledore was to let Death Eaters into the castle, who I would then get to kill Dumbledore for me. Poisoning someone is more Hestia Carrow’s type of thing than mine. The Dark Lord wanted Dumbledore dead and he’s not the type of person to put all of his hopes on one underage wizard; surely he had other people trying to kill Dumbledore,” Draco lied smoothly. Up until know, he hadn’t even remembered that he had had Madam Rosmerta sell Slughorn poisoned mead. He wasn’t particularly upset to learn that it had gone astray in Weasley’s direction.

            “I don’t believe you,” Ron said.

            “The vanishing cabinet I bought for such a purpose is still in Borgin and Burkes. The other one, its twin, was in the room of requirement. From Harry’s story, I gathered that it’s been destroyed. But back in sixth year, it was only slightly damaged and I could’ve fixed it and used it to let Death Eaters in any time I wanted. Now if I could do that, then why would I try something as half-baked as poisoning a bottle of mead that might or might not make it to Dumbledore?” Draco asked.

            “I don’t know,” Ron admitted. Draco’s plan did sound better.

            “Alright, let’s move this conversation onto more fertile areas. Obviously Draco is going to insist that he didn’t poison that mead and there is no evidence that he did. Someone did, but it could’ve been a number of other people and not even necessarily a student. So can we cover another matter now?” Hermione asked.

            “Yes, let’s cover how my son is seven months old and cannot move his left leg and has no hope of doing so in the foreseeable future,” Draco answered.

            “Look, I’m sorry I hit you. I’ve said it before, but apparently I need to say it again. I didn’t know you were pregnant and I had no idea that your kid would be hurt by it. What more would you like me to do?”

            “Curl up and die, for a start,” Draco replied with a sneer.

            “Other than that; perhaps something less fatal,” Hermione suggested.

            “Stay away from me and my family,” Draco said.

            “I will when Harry tells me to,” Ron retorted.

            “Yes, the Boy-Who-Lived seems to enjoy your company, which is why we’re having this out here and not at his birthday party,” Draco replied.

            “Boys, can’t you two come up with some sort of compromise for Harry’s sake?” Hermione asked.

            “I will if he will,” Ron said.

            “How about we both agree not to mention _any_ of those things that we each mentioned disliking about the other for the duration of Harry’s eighteenth birthday?” Draco asked.

            “That seems reasonable. Ron?” Hermione asked.

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll do it for Harry,” Ron answered.

            “Great, I’ll see you there,” Draco said, getting up to go.

            “Wait, Draco, can you tell us who exactly you invited? You know, so I can determine if you left anyone out,” Hermione said.

            “I invited all of the Gryffindors in our year, Hagrid, Dobby, all of the Weasleys our age, and Luna Lovegood. I considered inviting his relatives, but I don’t know how to contact them and I’m under the impression that he dislikes them. I also considered inviting the Order, but I wanted to keep it to just young adults. Did I miss anyone?” Draco asked.

            “Hagrid’s not young,” Ron replied, pointing out the flaw in Draco’s system of choosing guests.

            “Yeah, but Harry mentioned Hagrid a few times now, so I sent him an invite anyway,” Draco replied.

            “I think Hagrid coming is brilliant,” Hermione said.

            “Well did I miss anyone?” Draco repeated.

            “If Hagrid’s coming, we should invite my parents too; the three of them and Andy can hang out together,” Ron said.

            “Aunt Andy won’t be coming; she and my mother will be watching the babies,” Draco replied.

            “Can’t the babies come to the party?” Ron asked.

            “No, I don’t think they’re old enough for the swamp and I don’t know most of the guests well enough to trust them around my children,” Draco answered. The baby shower had also been full of people he didn’t know, but was limited to witches, who are unlikely to hurt babies. It contained lots of old witches, who are even less likely to hurt babies and would keep the young witches in line if anything turned sour. At Harry’s birthday party, on the other hand, there would be wizards and no older people to supervise. Therefore the babies wouldn’t be attending.

            “I trust everyone who will be there and the babies can stay in Andy’s house. You know Hagrid will want to see them; he loves babies,” Ron replied.

            “Actually Ron, Draco said he invited all of the kids from Gryffindor in our year, which means he invited Pavarti, Sally-Anne, and Isobel. We were never very close to any of them,” Hermione said.

            “Right; he should’ve invited Angelina, Katie, and Alicia instead,” Ron replied.

            “Who?” Draco asked.

            “Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia spinet were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with Harry for years,” Ron answered.

            “Oh, okay, yeah, I’ll invite them,” Draco replied.

            “Have you invited your friends?” Hermione asked.

            “Merlin help us, please tell me he didn’t invite all of Slytherin house too; that’d be a disaster,” Ron said.

            “Hush Ron,” Hermione chastised. “That’s rude. Harry said Draco’s friends have been perfectly nice to him.”

            “I can’t believe I agree with Weasley, but no Hermione, I didn’t invite them and it’s not because of how they treat Harry. I don’t know the Gryffindors I invited and I can’t say that they’ll get along with my friends. I didn’t want to risk ruining Harry’s birthday.”

            “I think you should. We need to integrate both sides after the war, so that we don’t go to war again. You and Harry, like it or not, are role models for the rest of the wizarding world. If the two of you can make your marriage work and maintain friendships with both sides, then everyone else will try to emulate you,” Hermione said.

            “That’s all well and good Hermione, but wouldn’t some other time be better for this little experiment of yours? Sometime other than Harry’s birthday?” Ron asked.

            “No, Harry’s birthday is the perfect time. And I’ve already spent some time with them at Draco’s birthday; Milli and Tracey were nice and danced with me. The others were polite and included me in the games and conversations. And both sides were at the baby shower and nothing happened there,” Hermione said.

            “But the baby shower was filled with adults and none of the boys. And Greg was just released and wasn’t at any of those functions. What if the Gryffindor boys take their frustrations with the war out on Greg for being a Death Eater? Or Theo for having a father who’s a Death Eater?” Draco asked.

            “Precisely,” Ron agreed. “Wasn’t Nott a Death Eater too, like his father?”

            “No, far from it; Theo wasn’t on either side of the war actually. He’s always blamed the Dark Lord for his mother’s death. More so than anyone else I know, he stayed well and good away from anything and everything related to the war,” Draco answered.

            “I didn’t know that; I always assumed…” Ron trailed off.

            “You assumed wrong,” Draco finished.

            “Alright, let’s get back on track. Draco, I still think you should invite your friends to the party. Harry invited me to your party and you should do the same with his party,” Hermione said.

            “I did invite you, Hermione,” Draco replied with a smirk.

            “I meant one of your Slytherin friends,” Hermione replied.

            “Look, why don’t you just invite the more neutral of your friends and leave out the ones who support Voldemort?” Ron asked.

            “I’m not leaving Greg out just because he was a Death Eater. He’s already been through enough with being incarcerated for over a month and he’s barely intelligent enough to understand why,” Draco replied.

            “Great, then you’ll invite him and all of your other friends. If there’s a problem, we’ll kick the culprits out of the party,” Hermione said.

            “That’s not what I meant,” Draco replied.

            “There’s no arguing with her when she gets like this; just invite the snakes,” Ron said.

            “I will argue with her, because I want Harry’s party to go smoothly,” Draco insisted.

            “Look, I’ll take responsibility for inviting your friends if something happens. And if there’s a dispute, you and I will be able to break it up and send the participants home. It’ll be fine and Harry will appreciate that they’re there to help him celebrate. He’s never had a really big party before,” Hermione said.

            “Are you sure he’d want them there?” Draco asked.

            “Yes,” Hermione answered.

            Ron wanted to say no, but he was currently living with Hermione and he didn’t want to be on her bad side.

            “Alright, fine, I’ll invite them too,” Draco conceded, before excusing himself.

            Draco apparated back to the potions lab at the Manor and sprinkled lacewing fly powder into his hair, so that Harry would think he’d been in his potions lab all morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They didn’t iron everything out, but they did come to an agreement, which can be built upon. The important thing is that Draco has finally realized that fighting with Ron is hurting Harry. Eventually I think they will learn to share Harry, while minimizing their interactions with each other. Ron, being a fellow Auror, will get him during work and only rarely out of work, while Draco will get him at home.
> 
> Up next Harry and Draco are going to see a fertility specialist, because Harry still isn’t pregnant.


	47. Chapter47

            Tuesday morning Draco spent in the study reading his potions textbook and making plans for his next potion brewing session. He finished half an hour before lunch and went down to the dining room, where he found Harry feeding Scorp and Sev mashed apricots. Edwrad, who could no longer use the basinets or the cradles now that he could roll over, was strapped into a bouncer on top of the table.

            “You know, Edward’s three months old now; we can start him on cereal,” Draco said, taking Sev’s bowl from Harry, before beginning the arduous task of prying Sev’s spoon from the baby’s grasp.

            “What are you talking about? Three month olds can’t eat cereal. Sev can’t even eat cereal,” Harry replied, inserting another spoonful of apricots into Scorp’s opened mouth.

            “Baby cereal they can; they just don’t like it. We only had a few boxes of it, so it ran out quickly. When we could buy things again, I didn’t bother to get more of it, but we could get some when we go out today. We could put Edwrad’s highchair together too.”

            “Yeah, alright.” Harry noticed then that there was a spot of orange goo on Draco’s face. “Um, I think some of Sev’s apricots got on your face.”

            “Thanks,” Draco said before casting a cleaning spell aimed at his face. “How was your morning? The boys didn’t give you any trouble, did they?”

            “Yeah, but Andy stayed with me until just now. Teddy peed on her when she was changing his nappy, so she went home to change and shower. She said she’d be back in time for us to leave for our appointment.”

            “Edward, it’s impolite to piss on your grandmother,” Draco scolded, turning from Sev to Edward.

            Draco and Harry finished feeding the twins and then Harry got a bottle from the house elves for Sev.

            Draco nursed first Scorp and then Edward while they ate. Narcissa came down for lunch and Andy was back by the end of it too. Then they took the boys upstairs for nappy changes and to play a bit before naptime. Once all three boys were down, Harry and Draco apparated to St. Mungo’s, leaving Andy and Narcissa to watch the babies.

            They were right on time for their appointment, but were made to wait. Harry was nervous as he sat in an overcrowded waiting room in a hard chair next to Draco. “It’s gonna be fine,” Draco assured Harry, wrapping an arm around his husband.

            “And if it’s not?” Harry asked.

            “Then we’ll be happy with the three wonderful children we already have,” Draco reassured him.

            Harry didn’t want to be happy with the three children they already had. He wanted his little princess and he wanted to be pregnant already. They had been trying for two going on three months now. Next week would be the three month anniversary of the war and they had been having unprotected sex almost that entire time, but he still wasn’t pregnant; not even after their anniversary trip to Hawaii. Draco had gotten pregnant the very first time. Every time was supposed to be fertile for a Peverell, but every week when Draco asked the elves if Harry smelled pregnant, they got the same negative response. And there was reason for Harry to worry, because he didn’t fit the typical Peverell mold. His cock was regular sized and no one had suspected him of being a Peverell wizard until Draco discovered his cervix. What if the regular sized penis wasn’t the only thing wrong with him? What if he couldn’t get pregnant?

            “Stop chewing on your nails,” Draco said, pulling Harry’s hand away from Harry’s mouth. Then he cast a nail trimming spell on Harry’s fingers, to even out the rough spots Harry had created.

            Harry started tapping his knee nervously, but luckily they didn’t have to wait much longer before they were called back. A male healer introduced himself as Healer Stevens. First up was a quick series of diagnostic spells to check both of their fertility and whether they were each already pregnant. Afterwards the healer concluded, “Well neither of you are currently pregnant, but the good news is that you are both fertile. Draco has taken a potion that limits his fertility as a carrier, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong, Harry, with your ability to be a carrier. And if a year passes without conception, we can reverse Draco’s contraceptive potion.”

            “But I thought Draco’s potion was permanent?” Harry asked.

            “I followed the directions perfectly. The book said it was long term and irreversible, except under painful and often dangerous conditions. It didn’t advise taking it for someone who might want to reverse it,” Draco replied.

            “That was likely an old book you got it from. Years ago that was true, but modern advances have led to a standardize procedure for reversing that particular potion; it’s not nearly so painful and almost always nonfatal,” Healer Stevens said.

            “I don’t like the sound of that,” Draco replied.

            “Well it’s not to be tried if there is still a possibility that Harry will conceive if given more of a chance. If it does come to that, I would give you a pain potion along with the reversing potion, to counteract the pain,” Healer Stevens replied.

            “But why haven’t we conceived yet? We’ve tried once a week every week for months now. We even did it every day for the week of our anniversary,” Harry complained.

            “You make it sound like such a hardship to be buggered by me,” Draco replied.

            “Sorry, I do love it, but I wanted to be pregnant already,” Harry said.

            “Well there are many reasons why you might not be conceiving a child that we have to consider. First of all is that fact that you are both wizards and are both producing gametes with both types of sex factors. If your gametes combine and form a zygote with two copies of the female determining factor, then you will produce a female child. If one gamete contains a female determining factor and the other a male, regardless of who contributed which factor, then the child will be a male. But if two male factors combine, the result is not to produce a super male; the result is embryonic lethality, meaning that the embryo dies before it can even implant into Harry’s uterus. Therefore only three fourths of the time the result will be a viable pregnancy, under optimal conditions with an actual fertilization,” Healer Stevens said.

            “Alright, what’s the next problem?” Draco asked. If three out of every four tries worked, Harry would be pregnant by now.

            “Your scans reveal that you two have been using the Girls Only potion, so that only girls are conceived. Is that right?”

            “Yes, we already have three boys and we only want a girl,” Draco answered. “But I brewed that potion myself and I know it’s good.”

            “I’m sure it is. But when you use that potion, all boy sex cells are killed. Both of you make boy and girl sex cells at approximately equal ratios, so half of all sex cells the two of you produce are killed. That means that half the time you two get busy, the sex cell in Harry’s uterus is already dead, because it was male. That for starters decreases your fertility by half and then it’s further reduced because half of Draco’s sex cells are dead. It’s not to say you shouldn’t use that potion, because it is the only way to ensure a girl child is conceived, but it is one of the caveats one must expect when using it,” Healer Stevens explained.

            “Even so, we still should’ve been pregnant again if that was the only thing we’re doing suboptimally,” Draco replied.

            “I think that an obvious candidate for your failure so far is stress. You’ve had a very stressful year, Harry, and stress can decrease conception rate. Do you think you could try eliminating stress from your life?” Healer Stevens asked.

            “The only stress I have right now is dealing with our three babies. I’m not working, not going to school, and I rarely go out,” Harry said.

            “Having three babies at home is another factor. The body naturally paces itself so that it doesn’t waist energy by producing more children than can be provided for at any one time. The more young children you have at home, especially highly dependent children under the age of one, the less fertile you can expect to be. That combined with the Girl Only potion could be the reason for your delayed conception,” Healer Stevens said.

            “Fuck,” Harry replied.

            “Harry, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means we need to keep trying,” Draco said, holding Harry’s hand.

            “Alright, yeah,” Harry said.

            “Diet is also a factor. You need to eat healthy to maximize your chances. What do you typically eat?” Healer Stevens asked.

            Harry generally ate rather healthy and he described his diet to the healer, who concluded that he was indeed eating right. Still, Harry was very slim and pregnancies required adequate calorie intake to sustain them, so Healer Stevens recommended Harry eat more.

            “There is one more variable that is often the problem when it comes to conception with Peverell wizards. Now it’s quite personal and isn’t typically a problem once a couple has already managed to conceive once. We still need to cover it though, especially because it was Draco who carried the first pregnancy, but it is Harry who is trying to conceive this one,” Healer Stevens said turning to a diagram posted on the back of the door. It showed the anatomy of a Peverell wizard. “Now when you release your ejaculate, Draco, which region inside of Harry, would you say you’re depositing it in?”

            “Um, towards the back of his colon,” Draco answered, standing up and pointing to the end of the straight canal on the diagram.

            “That is often the case with Peverell wizards who are having trouble conceiving. The rear region is near where the excrement vanishing charm is placed. If the ejaculate is shot up, passed the vanishing charm, the ejaculate will be vanished. If the ejaculate drips further up, because Harry is lying down, it can also cross into that region and vanish. The ejaculate needs to make it all of the way down here, where the cervix is, for fertilization to occur and even if the ejaculate doesn’t vanish, it can lose its virility by the time it reaches the cervix. Try pulling at least halfway out when you’re ejaculating,” Healer Stevens said.

            Draco turned from Healer Stevens to look at Harry, whose face was bright red in embarrassment. “Sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll knock you up next time for sure,” he promised.

            Harry just nodded, happy to know that there was nothing wrong with him. Draco pulled him in for a quick snog, to celebrate the good news.

            “So, um, do you think you can get your mum to watch the boys tonight?” Harry asked.

            “No, I want to wait until your birthday. It’s only a few days away and I want to give you something good to remember your birthday with,” Draco replied with a smirk. “Now off to that muggle store we went to last time?”

            “For what?” Harry asked confused.

            “For cereal for Edward. You don’t want to get mobbed buying food in the wizarding world do you?”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry agreed.

            Harry and Draco apparated to a block away from the muggle store. Harry pulled his robes off, shrinking them, and put them in the small pocket of the bag with Draco’s breast pump machine; Harry had a white muggle shirt and trousers underneath, which were much more appropriate for a muggle store. Draco couldn’t take his robes off, because he had the breast pump machine on and no shirt underneath his robes.

            They walked in the store and grabbed a couple boxes of baby cereal. While they waited at the checkout counter, Draco looked through the things on display by the check stand.

            “Harry, what are water ball-loons?” Draco asked.

            “Do you know what a balloon is?” Harry asked.

            “Um, no.”

            “Well these are little rubber sacks that they fill with water and throw at people in a water balloon fight. It’s like a snowball fight, but for summer. Kind of like the spoiled milk you threw at me that one time, but fun.”

            “Can we get some?”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry replied, taking the item and adding it to the conveyer belt.

            Harry paid and they apparated back to the Manor where they put Teddy’s highchair together and added it to the dining room. When they went upstairs, Sev and Scorp were still asleep, but Teddy was awake and in Andy’s arms. They took Teddy down to the dining room and Andy followed with the camera. Draco reclined the highchair and set Teddy in it, before asking Tea Cup to make them a small bowl of baby cereal.

            “He won’t know how to eat it at first, so it’ll be messy, but it’ll teach him how to do it for when he moves onto good tasting food,” Draco said, putting a large bib on Teddy and then scooping up a small spoonful of the thick liquid.

            “Can I taste it?” Harry asked, wondering how awful the stuff was and why they were feeding something so gross looking to their baby.

            “If you want to you can, but it’s made with my breast milk.” Draco shrugged and brushed Edward’s cheek with his finger to get the baby to open his mouth and then pushed the cereal into the little mouth.

            “Uh, never mind.” Part of Harry was curious, but a larger part thought it was perverted to try Draco’s breast milk.

            “You need to swallow it, Edward,” Draco said, wiping the cereal off of Edward’s chin with the spoon and pushing it back into the baby’s mouth. “Basically you put it in and he spits in out and you put it back in and repeat until he’s ready for a bath. Do you want to try?”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry said taking the spoon and bowl from Draco and repeating the process.

            By the end of it, Harry was fairly certain Teddy had gotten more of it on his neck than in his stomach, but it was only Teddy’s first time trying it and Draco and Andy both said it was fine. Andy went off to develop the new photos of her precious grandson, Harry took Teddy upstairs for a bath, and Draco went into their bedroom, citing the need for a nap.

            Once Draco was out of Harry’s sight, he called Viper and ordered the elf to put the water balloons down in the cellar with all of the other supplies for Harry’s birthday. He wasn’t sure how they were going to fill them with water, but Harry and Hermione would be there and they would know.

            After dinner Draco went into the third bedroom on the second floor and dug out all of the baby clothes that were the next size up for the boys. Edward and Sev’s clothes were both getting tight and he figured he might as well get Scorp’s next set of clothing ready too. For Sev, he pulled out half of the size nine months clothes that his mother had ordered from the catalogue. For Scorp, he pulled out the unused size six month clothes from the catalogue; he would add in some of Sev’s old size six month clothes, but for now he left Scorp’s pile on the spare bed. For Edward he gathered all of the size three month clothes they had been given at the baby shower; he would have to go through Sev and Scorp’s old size three month clothes and add them later. He didn’t finish that night, but he continued to work on the project throughout the week and got Harry to help him with it, so that they would stay so busy with baby clothes that Harry wouldn’t even notice the birthday party being planned right under Harry’s nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco is really going all out for Harry’s birthday. Up next is the party!


	48. Chapter48

            After breakfast on Friday, the morning of Harry’s birthday, Draco led Harry over to their bedroom, saying, “I have something for you.”

            “Alright, but if we’re gone for long Sev will complain,” Harry replied, sitting on the bed. They’d left the boys securely in the nursery.

            “We won’t be long,” Draco said, bringing the small black velvet covered box over to Harry. He sat down on Harry’s lap and snogged Harry.

            “Happy birthday,” Draco said, in between kisses. When he pulled his lips away from Harry’s, he slipped the package into Harry’s hand.

            “What is it?” Harry asked opening it. He found a silver colored metal bracelet inside, which looked to be a serpent eating its tail.

            “It’s an ouroboros bracelet that’s been in my family for generations. It’s goblin made and enhances natural beauty; not that you need it, but my ancestors were a bit vain you see and I wanted to give you one of my family heirlooms.” Draco took the bracelet out of the box and slid it onto Harry’s wrist. “It’s also charmed not to fall off, so you won’t lose it, which means if you want to take it off, you have to actively slide it off with your other hand.”

            “It’s great, thank you,” Harry replied smiling, before leaning in and kissing Draco again. He wasn’t particularly fond of jewelry, but he liked this bracelet because it was Draco who had given it to him. It made him feel like he belonged to Draco and belonged to the Malfoy family.

            “Oh and only a Malfoy can wear it or it’ll give the wearer an electric shock, to prevent theft,” Draco added, pulling away from Harry’s lips just enough to speak. “So don’t give it away or sell it, because it has to be passed to a Malfoy.”

            “Brilliant,” Harry replied and gave Draco one more kiss, but then he heard the banging on the wards in the nursery, which meant Sev had noticed their absence. “Right, our children.”

            And so they walked back, to find both Sev and Scorp up on their knees, pounding on the wards. Scorp was up on only the right knee, with the left leg sprawled out at an awkward angle to the side. “Draco, didn’t we leave Scorp in the jumper?” Harry asked, leaning down and picking up Scorp, while Draco did the same with Sev.

            “Yeah and he can’t crawl either,” Draco replied, walking further into the nursery. At least Edward was where they left him.

            “I’ve never seen him up on his one knee like that either.”

            “He must really have missed us.”

            “Yeah. Do you want to go back in your jumper, Sev?” Draco asked, putting Sev back into the jumper.

            “What about you, Scorp? Do you want in your jumper?”

            “No,” Scorp answered, apparently still in his no phase.

            “Alright, we can just sit in the rocker and watch,” Harry said, sitting down with Scorp in his lap. Scorp caught sight of the shiny new toy around Harry’s wrist and started spinning it around said wrist. “Do you like Daddy’s new bracelet, Scorp? Father gave it to me.”

            “No,” Scorp said and continued to play with the bracelet.

            “Draco, why did you give it to me? I know you said it can only be worn by a Malfoy, but if it enhances beauty, why not give it to your mother?” Harry asked.

            “Because we have three bracelets in the family that enhance beauty and that is the most masculine one; mother has the other two. It was my grandmother’s, before she died and she told me to give it to my wife one day. Of course she didn’t know I was queer at the time, but I think that if she’d met you, she would’ve wanted you to have it.”

            “Thanks. It’s got a nice feel to it.”

            “And here I thought you weren’t sensitive to magic.”

            “I’m not particularly. Why? Is there a type of magic that feels this way?”

            “Yeah, that’s the draw of the bloodline curse on it. It’s a dark curse, by the way, because it hurts the wearer if the wearer isn’t a Malfoy. After prolonged wearing, if someone were so stupid as to ignore the initial pain, it sears the skin and leaves behind the brand of thief in the shape of an ouroboros. It’s not just a simple anataracus spell. But since you are married to a Malfoy, it won’t harm you. And since you’ve parented two Malfoys, it recognizes you as bloodline Malfoy and gives off stronger magics of belonging. Do you still think all dark magic is bad?”

            Giving Harry something questionable was part of his plan to get Harry to see that all dark magic wasn’t bad. This bracelet wasn’t even very dark; it was in the grey area that wizards often debated over whenever a new regime came into power. One decade the bracelet would be considered dark and banned and the next it would be acceptable again. Of course Harry Malfoy owning it would help push the new regime into accepting bloodline curses as acceptable, which was the other reason Draco had chosen to give Harry this piece.

            “Um, I don’t know, but I’m not really comfortable with this around the babies; what if they get burned?” Harry asked, pulling the bracelet away from Scorp, making the baby cry.

            “It can’t harm Scorp, Harry, he’s a Malfoy. He likes it, because the bloodline curse calls to him as the next Lord Malfoy. With his sensitivity to magic, it’s no wonder he’s fussing at you for taking it away.”

            “Alright fine, but it better not hurt him. Hey, will it hurt Teddy?” Harry asked, lowering his hand back down to Scorp, allowing Scorp to play with the bracelet once again.

            “No, because we officially adopted him, making all of our artifacts recognize his blood as Malfoy blood. His descendants will also be recognized as Malfoys; that’s why I wanted him officially adopted.”

            “Yeah, alright, good,” Harry replied.

            “Well back to sorting through baby clothes,” Draco said getting up and going to the closet, where he had left all of the piles of old clothes.

            Harry spent a couple of hours taking care of their babies while Draco sorted the clothes, but at ten forty-five Draco started nursing Scorp, which was highly unusual for Draco. “Draco, why are you feeding Scorp now? Lunchtime isn’t for another hour more,” Harry said.

            “I have a surprise for you; we’re going somewhere for lunch. Why don’t you make mother and Aunt Andy’s job easier by taking Edward down and feeding him his cereal now?” Draco asked.

            “Where are we going?”

            “You surprised me on my birthday and for our anniversary; obviously you must like surprises, which is why you’re getting one now.”

            “Which is?”

            “I’m not telling.”

            “Alright, fine. Come on Teddy, let’s go have some disgusting cereal mush,” Harry said, picking Teddy up from the swing and taking the baby downstairs.

            Harry fed Teddy until the bowl of mush was all over Teddy’s bib and highchair tray. A small amount of it might have even made it into the baby’s stomach. Teddy had gotten better at eating the mush, but not much better; mostly he had started using his little tongue to attempt to move the cereal further back into his mouth, but hadn’t yet managed to coordinate that with swallowing. “Alright Teddy, bath time,” Harry said, carefully pulling the bib off. He took the baby upstairs, but ran into Andy and Narcissa on the way.

            “Oh, thank you Harry dear. I’ll take Teddy from here. You can go get dressed; swimming trunks are required,” Andy said, taking the baby from Harry.

            “Yes and you better hurry,” Narcissa added. “It’s almost time.”

            “Time for what?” Harry asked, letting the women push him out of the nursery.

            “For your big surprise, of course,” Narcissa answered, pointing at Harry and Draco’s bedroom door, which was closed.

            Harry didn’t normally keep their bedroom door closed. Finding it closed typically meant that Draco was doing something behind it. Harry let his curiosity get the best of him and went into his bedroom, where Draco was pulling a swim shirt over his head. Draco was already wearing his swim trunks.

            “What’s going on?” Harry asked, closing the door behind him.

            “Get dressed; we’re going swimming,” Draco answered, indicating Harry’s swim trunks which he had laid out on the bed.

            “I thought we were having lunch?”

            “We are, after we go swimming. Get dressed.”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry agreed and then changed. “Should I bring my dress robes or are we coming back here?”

            “You won’t need you’re dress robes, come on. Apparate to the lawn outside Andy’s house.”

            “What? There’s no water there; shouldn’t we go to the villa?”

            “No, I’ll be waiting for you on the lawn outside my aunt’s house,” Draco said, before apparating away.

            “Wait!” Harry called out confused, but Draco was already gone, so he did as instructed and appeared outside Andy’s house.

            There was quite the gathering of young wizards and witches on Andy’s lawn along with what appeared to be a swamp. And then the crowd erupted in shouts of, “Surprise!”

            Draco took Harry into his arms and pressed a fierce kiss to Harry’s lips. “Surprise,” he said softly.

            “You planned me a birthday party?” Harry asked surprised.

            “Yeah, well you planned one for me.”

            “Your dad planned that; I just made a trip to the joke shop and invited Hermione.”

            “Yeah, well, it’s too late to get you something else, so you’re stuck with the party; you might as well have fun,” Draco said, pulling away from Harry so that Harry could see all the guests who had come.

            “Harry! It’s good ta see yer,” Hagrid said, taking a few giant steps forward and embracing Harry in a crushing hug.

            “You too, Hagrid,” Harry said. “Set me back down.”

            Hagrid set Harry down and the rest of the guests greeted him. All of Gryffindors and Slytherins from their year were there along with Alicia, Katie, Angelina, Luna, Ginny, and George.

            “Thank you so much for testifying for me at my trial. I tried to tell Vince not to kill you,” Gregory Goyle said when Harry got to him.

            “I know Goyle, that’s why I did it. Stay out of trouble and I’ll consider us even,” Harry replied, shaking the hulking Slytherin’s hand.

            “Deal, thanks Harry,” Greg replied.

            “Dobby is so happy to be invited to the great Harry Potter, sir’s, birthday party, sir! Dobby is honored, sir!” Dobby said, coming up to Harry and hugging Harry’s leg.

            “You’re welcome, Dobby; it’s great that you came,” Harry replied.

            “Dobby is helping with the barbeque,” Dobby said, before going back to where the other elves were preparing the food, despite the fact that Dobby had been invited as a guest, not a servant.

            “Alright, Weasley, Granger, did you two figure out how to do the slip-n-slide?” Draco asked.

            “Yes, of course,” Hermione answered.

            “I was skeptical at first, but it’s bloody brilliant,” Ron answered.

            “Then let’s get this party started!” Draco proclaimed.

            Ron and Hermione led Harry and the group of party goers over to the swamp and showed Harry how to run and slide on the cloths. It had taken a couple of modifying charms to get the swamp hard enough that the cloths didn’t sink in, but Draco had optimized that all yesterday, so it was ready to go.

            Harry followed Ron’s lead, ran, slid, and had a blast as he went skidding along the downhill course of the artificial swamp. When he was done, he went back to the beginning and got in line behind George.

            “George, this invention is brilliant! How come you didn’t tell me about this swamp slip-n-slide?” Harry asked, thinking that he would’ve done this for Draco’s birthday if he’d known.

            “I didn’t invent it. Your husband came into my store, looked around, and picked up a box of our standard portable swamp. He asked if I could modify it to not stink, have the downhill slope, and add the swimming pool on the side. I did and he did the rest. It’s brilliant really. I think our families are in for a long and very profitable relationship if he’ll agree to let me mass produce these things and sell them,” George replied.

            “Yeah, alright, I’m sure he will. He doesn’t like doing the things himself, he just like coming up with the ideas and getting someone else to do the manufacturing.”

            “What else has he come up with?”

            “Homing charms on soothers and charmed muggle jeans.”

            “Soothers?”

            “Yeah, they’re a little toy muggles give their babies to suck on.”

            “Oh, alright. Does he have any more baby inventions? If there are more things like that, we can open up a baby line.”

            “No, but Hermione and I just modified glass baby bottles so that the babies can hold them themselves.”

            “Brilliant. Well it’s my turn, so we better get sliding,” George said, before summoning the newly freed cloth and sliding down the swamp for the first time.

            Harry went after George and then repeated the process, until he noticed that half of the people had migrated over to the swimming pool where they were eating hamburgers and crisps. Most of the girls only had their feet dangling in the pool, while they ate on the edge. Draco, Hagrid, and a few of the Slytherins were all the way in, but eating other the side of the pool.

            “Get a plate and come over here, Harry,” Draco called, pointing towards the table of food put out by the elves.

            Harry followed Draco’s finger to a plate, which Dobby promptly filled with a fresh cheeseburger, sliced fruit, and crisps. Then Harry took his food back over to Draco and the swimming pool. He sat down next to Draco and dipped his legs in, like the girls were doing. Draco encouraged him to get all the way in and he did, eating next to Draco.

            The rest of the guests found their way over to the food and the pool as well. Ron had a plate with three hamburgers on it and no fruit. Hermione gave the plate a look of disgust, despite the fact that Hagrid had two plates and even more food.

            “What?” Ron asked Hermione, pulling his first hamburger away from his face.

            “They taste better if house elves cook them,” Draco said, just because he thought it might get Hermione mad at Ron.

            “Is that true?” Ron asked.

            Harry just shrugged his shoulders and Draco said, “Yeah, of course. If it were anything else, we’d have it for servants; Malfoys have the best of everything.”

            “You have the best portable swamps; that’s for sure,” Blaise said, from Draco’s side.

            “Harry, how does little Teddy like the blan’et I sen’ yer?” Hagrid asked.

            “That was a blanket?” Harry asked, thinking back to the olive and pink colored hand crocheted something.

            “O’ course ‘tis a blan’et. Wha’dig yer think it were?” Hagrid asked.

            “I didn’t know,” Harry answered.

            “Not to worry, Hagrid, Harry is a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to the baby things. It’s been too hot to try the blanket out, but I’m sure Edward’ll love it this winter,” Draco lied smoothly.

            “Wonterful. I oughta start workin’ on blan’ets for yer other two little uns, Harry,” Hagrid replied.

            “No need; Madam Molly Weasley is already making them blankets,” Draco said quickly, hoping to cut off any and all thoughts of Hagrid making another crocheted item for his babies. “Scorpius, however, is fascinated with unicorns. Do you think you could find a real unicorn hair that I could insert into his stuffed unicorn’s tail?” It was always best to distract people by offering them more useful courses of action.

            “Yeah, o’ course! I reckon I could do yer un better though an’ capture a unicorn fer yer little un ta pet,” Hagrid replied.

            “Excellent,” Draco replied. “I’m sure the boys will love that.”

            Harry and Draco finished eating and then a house elf vanished all of their empty plates.

            “Come and slide with me?” Harry asked.

            “No, you go though. I’m fine here,” Draco replied.

            “You didn’t slide earlier. Why don’t you want to go? You created it.”

            Draco leaned in and whispered into Harry’s ear, so that no one else would hear. “The breast pumps are on.”

            “Well take them off and come in with me.”

            “I already tried it yesterday. It’s not comfortable for me to slide on my chest, even without the pumps.”

            “Then how’d you test it?”

            “I took the pumps off and slid the first few times, but when it started hurting, I got Greg and a house elf to come over and test it. I figured everyone was between Greg and an elf in size. You go have fun though.”

            “Yeah, okay. I love you,” Harry replied, leaning in for a quick kiss. “Speaking of elves, did you invite Dobby here to serve me?” Harry loved that the elf was here, but it irked him to see the free elf waiting on everyone.

            “No, I invited him as a guest. He put himself to serving you,” Draco answered. “I think he’s more comfortable with the other elves.”

            “Dobby!”

            “Yes, Harry Malfoy, sir?” Dobby asked, coming right over.

            “Draco said that the slide is fit for an elf. You’re a guest at this party and I want you to have some fun, not spend all your time serving people. Now come and slide with me,” Harry said.

            “Whatever Harry Malfoy, sir, wishes,” Dobby replied.

            “Great,” Harry said, before taking Dobby over to the slide with him.

            Everyone was waiting for George as he increased the height of the initial slide, taking it from a fun slide, to a truly epic slide. Harry pushed Dobby to the front of the line and the elf was the first to go down the new and improved slide. With the new height and Dobby’s decreased size, the elf picked up speed and flew off the end of the slide, landing in the pool with a splash. Hermione threw Dobby a life raft. The elf climbed onto it, floating around the pool very pleased with himself for having served Harry Malfoy and had fun.

            Harry went down next and although he had to climb up the new stairs, the added height increased the speed and consequently, the fun of the ride.

            It was an hour more of pure sliding joy and excitement before Harry got hit with a water balloon. He was shocked at first. Looking around he saw Draco and Hermione with a large stack of the water balloons from the muggle store. Hermione must have thrown the first balloon, because she was just sending another one spinning, while Draco was directing one that was further along. Harry watched as Draco’s balloon came at him and hit him right in the chest.

            Draco and Hermione were giggling as Harry came off of the swamp-n-slide. “Is that the thanks I get for buying you muggle things?” Harry asked, approaching Draco and taking Draco into his arms.

            “Yeah, I thought you would like it,” Draco replied.

            “Oh, I do,” Harry said, giving Draco a quick kiss, before stealing an armful of balloons and running a good distance away. He then proceeded to fling them at Draco and Hermione.

            There was a water balloon fight then that was a lot of fun and lasted until Harry was out of balloons. Harry went back to sliding and Draco and Hermione duplicated the remaining balloons until they had a pile again. Then they began to hit the other guests with balloons until they got tired of duplicating and throwing them.

            Next, Draco, Dobby, and Hagrid set up the cake with candles and called Harry and the other guests over. Draco lit the candles, Hagrid led the singing, and Harry blew out the candles. Dobby and the other elves cut and served the yellow cake with strawberry ice cream and a strawberry filling. The cake was moist, sweet, and delicious and then it was time for presents.

            From their friends there were muggle dress shirts, a set of Quidditch balls, chocolate frogs, a wizarding wireless and a set of records, a wizarding chest set, and a new pair of shoes. Then Isobel and Sally-Anne, the two Gryffindor’s Harry knew the least, gave him a gift bag full of silk boxers. The girls were giggling hysterically.

            “Draco, why are they even here? Do you like them?” Harry whispered, wondering what Izzy and Sally-Anne expected him to do with the weird underwear and why they were giggling so.

            “No, but they’re Gryffindors. I didn’t know you had a problem with some of the Gryffindors,” Draco replied, also in a whisper.

            “I don’t really, we just never got to know those two,” Harry replied.

            Next Neville gave Harry a potted plant with a few purplish pink flowers. “It’s a lilac shrub. Hermione said you liked them,” Neville said, handing over the pot.

            “Really? Thanks Neville,” Harry replied, happy to have a bit of Draco’s favorite flower. If he could get it to grow, then eventually they could have a whole garden full of lilacs and he could have lilacs anytime he wanted. He missed the Room of Requirement with its lilac forest. Lilacs were a pleasant reminder of the early days of their love. He sniffed the few flowers blossoming on the plant and the sweet aroma brought back feelings of happiness.

            Finally, George and Angelina gave Harry the last gift, which was a mini twister and a large box of whiz-bangs. George let loose the mini twister in the swamp and confined it to just the right location to make the water turbulent. It sent splashes of water flying, but didn’t otherwise disturb the course. That action sent the guests running back towards the swamp-n-slide and Harry stayed to help Draco gather up the gifts.

            The party was winding down and Draco was tired, so he went to take a nap, leaving Harry to finish up and say goodbye to his friends. Harry went back to sliding and having fun with the other guests. They ended it by setting off the whiz-bangs and calling it a night.

            Draco was asleep, but woke up when Harry apparated into the room. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Harry said.

            “No matter; I need to get up and feed Scorp anyway,” Draco said groggily, sitting up.

            They gathered in the dining room to have a quiet family supper, Scorp sitting on Draco’s lap to nurse. After supper, the Malfoy family gave Harry their gifts.

            “Harry, I know you don’t have many heirlooms from the Potters, so I wanted to find you some. I went to Borgin and Burkes and asked Mister Borgin if he might be able to get me anything that was ever owned by the Potter family. This is what he could find,” Narcissa lied, handing over the large box. “It’s from Lucius and me, as well as Madam Lestrange; she helped Borgin track them down.”

            Narcissa didn’t want Harry to know that these things had been in her sister Bella’s possession before the final battle. Bella had left them in the Lestrange family vault. She’d stolen them seventeen years ago from the Potter home in Godric’s Hollow, when she and her fellow Death Eaters had searched for clues to their fallen master’s location. Narcissa had merely asked Rodolphus’ mother if she could have them from the vault. Madam Lestrange had wanted nothing to do with anything of Bella’s and agreed to let her take anything she wanted.

            But of course none of that needed to be mentioned during Harry’s birthday, because the truth would spoil the happy occasion. The important thing was that the items were finally being returned to their proper owner. And she had gone through quite a bit of work searching through the Lestrange vault for the correct items, because that vault was so full of swag that.

            Harry unwrapped the box to reveal a crystal vase and matching candlestick holders, along with several boxes of scented candlesticks. The candlesticks were the only part of the gift Narcissa had bought.

            “Thanks, this is really great!” Harry exclaimed. He could use them to decorate his room at Grimmauld Place, to make it more romantic for his and Draco’s weekly visits.

            “Harry, the boys helped me make this,” Andy said, handing over a large, but very flat, rectangular package.

            Harry opened up Andy’s gift to find a canvas with three sets of hand and foot prints. The name Severus was below the largest set on the left and Edward was below the littlest set on the right. In the middle was a mismatched set, with a larger right foot than left foot; underneath it was the name Scorpius. “Thanks, this is really great too,” Harry said.

            After that, Andy and Narcissa took the three boys up to the nursery. Draco helped Harry hang the frame with the hand and foot prints in the sitting room on the second floor. Then they kissed their three boys goodnight and apparated over to Grimmauld Place. Draco set out the candles in the Potter candlesticks and Harry asked Cotton the elf for flowers from the garden for the vase.

            Once the candles were lit and the flowers arranged, Draco pulled out another set of vials of the Girl Only potion that would ensure they only conceive girls. He drank one himself and gave the other to Harry, who swallowed it eagerly. Then Draco pushed Harry back onto the bed, pulling up Harry’s robes and caressing his body lovingly and lavishing kisses on him. The usual preparation ensued, but now Draco sucked Harry’s dick while fingering him.

            Harry only had one request that night, “Fuck me?”

            “I always do,” Draco replied cockily.

            “No, _really_ fuck me, like with you on top.”

            “I’ll try,” Draco promised.

            There were a few more kisses in between removing articles of Draco’s clothing. Then Harry lay back on the bed, with his legs open and beckoned Draco closer.

            Draco came and although he found the position awkward initially and had trouble lining up his dick, a pillow under Harry’s arse solved that problem and he continued on. Entering Harry’s hole sent a rush of sensation to his brain and a rush of blood to dick. His head spun and his breathing sped up so fast that his lungs hurt, but he wasn’t a virgin anymore and was growing used to it. He wouldn’t quit that easily.

            Harry lifted his legs up to Draco’s shoulders, to try to work Draco’s cock into the right spot. Draco responded to that by lowering his body down on top of Harry’s and gave him a short kiss, before breaking away to breathe. Harry was crushed by Draco’s weight, but in a good way. Draco wasn’t all that heavy, being on the rather slim side, and it felt comforting, like he was being held tightly while being buggered. It was a welcome change from being on the top out in the open all of the time.

            And then Draco shifted, resting his body on his forearms, and suddenly lightning bolts of euphoria were shooting through Harry’s system. He felt a pulsing sensation on his cock and a wet sensation on his stomach, but not the usual clenching in his ballocks. It felt like an orgasm, but at the same time it didn’t.

            Draco paused for a moment, pulling back just long enough for them to see the white puddle of liquid smashed between their chests and the cum still dribbling slowly out of Harry’s cock. “You cumming already Harry?” Draco whispered into Harry’s ear.

            “Uhhg, sort of. It doesn’t quite feel the same, but it feels bloody brilliant. Keep fucking me.”

            Draco obeyed and continued hitting Harry’s prostate, right in that one spot. Cum kept dribbling out of Harry’s cock for ten minutes more, before Draco got the idea to stroke Harry through this elongated orgasm. As soon as Draco’s warm hand touched Harry’s slick flesh, a harsh spasm of pleasure coursed through Harry’s system, making his ballocks clench tightly. Harry came hard then, every muscle in his body contracting. He accidentally kicked his leg out, kicking Draco in the process, but his husband recovered and continued to pound into him, hitting that spot. His eyes rolled back in his head as he was transported to a plane filled with only ecstasy and the pleasure rippling through his cock and arse.

            And then it was too much pleasure and he couldn’t take it anymore. He was over stimulated. If he was in charge, he would’ve stopped at this point, but Draco didn’t know. Draco kept going, only rising up on hands when Harry’s legs continued to flair and contract. Harry used what was left of his mental capacity to pull his body further up the bed, kicking out against the mattress for leverage. It wasn’t much, but Harry managed to get a couple of inches off of Draco’s dick in the process. But Draco’s cock was so thick and long that his husband was still connected with him, inside of him. And then Draco moved to follow, closing the distance and making Harry scream out in pleasure as another wave of orgasm crashed down over him, drowning him in ecstasy.

            Harry’s chest heaved and his lungs burnt with the need for air. His arms and back began to spasm as Draco continued to pump him through the most extreme orgasm of his life. It was so good and then it was too much again, and he was trying to sit up, to get away; his tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth and he didn’t even think to say something. He had one knee bent, attempting to leverage his leg underneath him, but the other leg flailed out in an uncontrollable spasm, his toes curling, slowing him down. Draco brushed Harry’s flailing arm to the side, as the muscles contracted, and leaned in to press kisses all of Harry’s face. The gesture was loving and made a warm feeling flood through Harry’s stomach and his back arch. The arching changed the angle of Draco’s cock and suddenly it felt good again and he wanted more.

            The sounds that were coming out of Harry’s mouth were like nothing Draco had ever heard before. There was moaning that reverberated and sent tingles down his engorged shaft. The muscle spasms were accompanied by loud shouts that were composed of an unintelligible string of, “Oh! Oh, oh, oooo, oh, oh, ohhhhh!” And then the back arching and squirming were about all he could take. He held on as long as he could, for Harry’s sake, so that his husband could finish enjoying the most exaggerated orgasm he’d ever seen, but he couldn’t last forever. The moment Harry’s head fell back on his pillow, his eyes closed, with a look of bliss on his face, Draco came.

            Draco almost didn’t remember the healer’s advice, but then he did and pulled back. His cock was so long that he had to pull back again, which was harder to do while orgasming, but he managed. He pulled out until his head was just past Harry’s sphincter. He wanted to push in again, to fuck Harry through his own orgasm, but he wanted to conceive their daughter more, so he didn’t. Instead he reached down and gave Harry’s limp dick one more tug.

            Even though Harry wasn’t hard, he was still so over sensitized that the tug on his cock had his muscles spasmming and his limbs pushing him up off of the bed. Harry’s movement felt divine on Draco’s dick and was just what he needed to send him soaring through his own amazing orgasm.

            When Draco finished, he lay down beside Harry, taking his husband into his arms, and whispered, “That was bloody brilliant.”

            Harry grunted in agreement.

            They went to sleep. When they woke up, there was significantly more jizz in Harry’s arse than normal. They had one more go, just to make sure of a pregnancy. Then Harry inserted another dose of the soothing potion before going to sleep. Draco apparated back to the Manor to nurse Scorp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a big transition in the story, going from the summer after the war, to returning to the grinds of daily life in the coming chapters. I considered ending the story here and making a Peverell’s Children III, but there won’t be that much action left. Basically things are going to start to even out for our happy family and although there are still some bumps on the road, it’ll be a rather fluffy road. Up next Harry will find out about Bellatrix’s funeral.


	49. Chapter49

            A week later it was just another August day, like any other day. Harry was at home in the Manor with Draco and their three boys. Teddy had just learned to sit up and was showing off this skill on the carpet in the nursery. The baby was still wobbly, so Harry had put a cushioning charm on the floor around him, just in case. Sev was crawling all over the nursery and grabbing onto the furniture to pull himself up. Sev was currently holding onto the rails of the crib from the outside and taking short little steps forward. Scorp just sat there, like he always did, and played quietly with a toy.

            Harry was sitting in the middle of it all, reading the boys a children’s story, while Draco was in the next room reading. Then an owl came flying through the nursery window, landing on the floor right in front of Harry. Teddy, who was only a foot away from the owl, reached forward, overbalanced, and fell forward onto his little hands. Scorp, who was two feet away from the owl, said, “Owl!” and reached out both hands towards the bird, but didn’t fall.

            Sev, who was the farthest away, abandoned the crib rails, plopping back down onto all fours to crawl at top speed towards the bird, making excited grunting noises as he went. Harry just barely got the scroll of parchment off of the bird’s leg before Sev was there, ambushing the bird. Harry picked Sev up and said, “Oi, no owl for Sev. Owls have sharp beaks and talons.” The owl flew away immediately.

            “Ta-osssss,” Sev repeated.

            “Yes Sev, talons,” Harry said and put Sev back down, so that he could read the scroll.

 

Harry-

            I’m at Auror training and they just caught another Death Eater. There’s something you _have_ to hear. Auror Robards told me to owl you immediately and get you down here. Come quickly.

                                                                                    -Ron

 

            Harry wasn’t sure what was so important about catching yet another Death Eater, but if Ron and Auror Robards both wanted him to come in right away, then he probably ought to go. He walked to the doorway and asked, “Draco, can you watch the boys for a while? Auror Robards needs me down at the Ministry.”

            Draco put his finger in his book to mark his place and looked up at Harry. “What for?” he asked. He was supposed to be studying for his NEWTs. He was not supposed to be watching the kids while Harry went off and did Auror stuff.

            “They captured another Death Eater and need me to come in immediately,” Harry replied.

            “Yeah, alright, but don’t take all day. I don’t really see why they can’t do their job without you,” Draco replied, sitting his book down on the end table.

            “Thanks,” Harry said, walking over to Draco and giving him a quick kiss. During the kiss, they heard the loud bang of a little fist pounding on the wards. He turned around and saw Sev standing up at the nursery door, holding onto the door jam with one hand and pounding on the baby ward with the other.

            “I’m coming, Sev,” Draco said, pulling away and going into the nursery.

            Harry turned on the spot and apparated away to the Auror department in the Ministry. He thought the place was deserted at first, but then when he walked towards the interrogation rooms, he found a bunch of Aurors waiting out in the hall. Ron was one of them and came towards him immediately.

            “Harry, they brought in Marcus Flint and they’ve been interrogating him all day with veritaserum. You have to hear what he’s saying,” Ron said, leading Harry through the crowd of Aurors towards a closed door. They could see through an interior window that Marcus Flint was sitting at a table opposite an Auror, with several other Aurors in the room. Auror Robards was among them and opened the door for them to enter when they approached.

            “Harry, good, you made it. I want you to hear something Flint told us,” Robards said, pulling Harry further into the room. There was a pause in the interrogation while the other Aurors waited for Harry to enter. “Flint, did you attend the funeral of Bellatrix Lestrange?”

            “Yes,” Flint answered in the flat voice of someone under the influence of veritaserum.

            “Where was the funeral held?” Robards asked.

            “I don’t know.”

            “How did you get there?”

            “Portkey from Madam Druella Black’s house.”

            “Was Druella Black there?”

            “Yes.”

            “Who else was there?”

            Flint started to speak, but his tongue appeared to get stuck in his mouth and all that came out was a grunt and a gulping sound.

            “Tongue tying curse; he can’t tell us the names of anyone who was there,” Robards explained. “Flint, was the Malfoy family aware that the funeral was going on?”

            “Yes.”

            “When was the funeral?”

            “Saturday May sixteenth,” Flint said and Harry gasped. That was the date of Fred’s funeral, when he and Andy took Teddy to the Burrow for half of the day. Narcissa and Lucius had been away that day, saying they were moving Druella back into her house; had it all been a lie to cover for Bellatrix’s funeral? What had Draco been doing when Harry was away? Did Draco take Scorp and Sev to the funeral? Had Draco lied to him?

            “Harry, let’s go next door,” Robards said, leading Harry out of the room and into the next interrogation room. Ron followed after them. “You can come too, Weasley.”

            Harry sat down in one of the chairs in a bit of shock as he tried to process this information. Ron stood next to him and Robards closed the door.

            “I take it you were not aware that Bellatrix Lestrange’s funeral had been rescheduled,” Robards said.

            “No, I wasn’t,” Harry replied.

            “Do you remember what you were doing on May sixteenth?”

            “I went to Fred Weasley’s funeral with Andy and Teddy.”

            “Do you know what the Malfoys were doing that day?”  
            “I believe Draco stayed home all day with the twins. Lucius and Narcissa said they were moving Druella back home, but now I’m pretty sure that was a cover for the funeral.”

            “What did they tell you about the funeral?”

            “Draco said that it got too hot, so they canceled it. No one ever said anything else.”

            “What did he mean by too hot?”

            “I assumed that meant that the Death Eaters were worried the Aurors would show up. Seeing as we were planning on crashing it, I figured that somehow our plans had leaked out.”

            “How do you think they got out?”

            “A spy here at the Ministry.”

            “You don’t think there’s any possibility that your house was bugged or you were overheard discussing it with someone?”

            “Well I did discuss it with Hermione, but Draco was asleep and no one else was around. I really don’t think the house is bugged. I think it’s much more likely that there’s a spy in the Ministry. Lucius said there were Aurors there when he was released.”

            “Yes, but we arrested Dawlish and Le Feuvre and three other Aurors who were also known to be working for Voldemort before the funeral.”

            “I don’t know anything else.”

            “I know, son. I didn’t think you did; I just thought you’d want to hear this for yourself.”

            “Thank you,” Harry replied.

            “Alright, I better get back to the interrogation. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want,” Robards said before leaving and closing the door behind him.

            “Harry, what are we gonna do about this?” Ron asked.

            “What do you mean? There’s not anything to do; it’s over,” Harry replied.

            “Draco lied to you and told you the funeral was off. Those sneaky snakes scheduled Bellatrix’s funeral for the same day and time as Fred’s funeral, to distract you from it! You can’t seriously sit here and tell me you’re not gonna do anything about it!” Ron exclaimed.

            “Let me think for a second.” Harry thought about it for several minutes, trying to figure out if Draco or anyone else had said anything to indicate that the funeral was still on or had been rescheduled or had happened. Was there anything out of the usual that day? “Draco was home when I left for the Burrow and he was still home halfway through when I went back for the bouncer. When Andy and I left early, he was home. There’s no way Draco or the babies were there.”

            “Even if he wasn’t there, he knew.”

            “Why? Why would he have to know? Like you said, Lucius and Narcissa are sneaky snakes and they probably lied to their own son. They knew I was going to Fred’s funeral. They were the ones gone. I think they probably did the whole thing without telling him.”

            “Mate, you’re delusional here, don’t you see? This is Dumbledore all over again. Draco didn’t tell you about Voldemort ordering him to kill Dumbledore or that Snape was gonna do it that night. He just disappeared and left you. That’s not exactly what I’d expect from a loving husband. He betrayed you, mate.”

            “But Dumbledore ordered Snape to do it and Draco knew that. He didn’t tell me, because I couldn’t know. I had to believe that Snape was really Voldemort’s man or Snape wouldn’t’ve been able to help me.”

            “What about when he poisoned me and cursed Katie?”

            “He didn’t do those things; maybe I thought he might’ve at the time, but it wasn’t him.”

            “I know it was him, mate. He was trying to kill Dumbledore and both of those attacks were meant to get Dumbledore killed.”

            “Maybe the mead was meant for Dumbledore, but the necklace wasn’t. Draco said that there were other budding Death Eaters in the school. One of the others probably tried to kill Dumbledore with the poisoned mead. Draco wasn’t really working on killing Dumbledore, like he was supposed to be.”

            “If the mead wasn’t him, then how was he going to do it?” Ron remembered what Draco had said about the cabinet during their meeting before Harry’s birthday party, but he wanted to cast as much doubt in Harry’s mind as he could.

            “He wasn’t; he was gonna fail.”

            “How many lies does Draco need to get caught in for you to see?”

            “At least one more. I’m going home,” Harry said, before apparating back to the Manor and leaving Ron hanging there at the Ministry.

            Harry materialized in the sitting room and walked into the nursery, where he found Draco sitting on the bed nursing Scorp and Teddy and feeding Sev a bottle. “How’d it go?” Draco asked, looking up at Harry.

            Harry walked in and sat next to Draco on the bed with a sigh, taking Sev’s bottle from Draco so that Draco could have both hands to hold Scorp and Teddy. “They caught Marcus Flint.”

            “That sucks; he’s my fourth cousin.”

            “He said he went to your aunt Bellatrix’s funeral.”

            “My aunt’s funeral was canceled, remember? We were all here that day.”

            “He said it was moved to the Saturday of Fred’s funeral.”

            “Are you sure he wasn’t lying?”

            “He was under veritaserum and why would he lie about that?”

            “Oh I don’t know, to spite the Aurors maybe?”

            “I think he was telling the truth. Are you telling me you honestly didn’t know?” Harry asked looking Draco in the eyes for any hint of deception. He wanted to trust Draco, but Ron’s words echoed in his head.

            “I didn’t know,” Draco replied smoothly, making eye contact with Harry. “I suspected something was up, but I didn’t know. Nothing ever came of it, so I forgot about it.”

            “Alright, I believe you, but I think your parents had to have known.”

            “What makes you think that? I’m sure my grandmother is more than capable of throwing a funeral by herself.”

            “Because your parents took her home and were moving her back into her house that day. She wouldn’t’ve been able to sneak away to a funeral by herself.”

            “Well you’re welcome to ask Mother, but I’m fairly certain that Father at least didn’t go; he wasn’t even invited.”

            “Yeah, alright,” Harry said. Part of him felt defeated and dreaded the idea of confronting Narcissa with the issue and part of him was happy Draco wasn’t involved.

            “Do you know what they’re charging Marcus with? He’s always been nice to me and I’d hate to see his entire life ruined for getting caught up with the Death Eaters.” Marcus’ older brother Dax Flint on the other hand, Draco wouldn’t mind seeing caught and brought up on charges; Dax was an arse.

            “No, I didn’t ask. Did you know he was a Death Eater?”

            “I knew he took the mark, but he was a baby Death Eater and as far as I knew, he didn’t ever do anything.” Draco thought about telling Harry about Dax being a Death Eater too, because of his dislike for Dax, but he didn’t want to turn family in. He thought he should give Dax a chance to turn his life around, because after all, Dax had a wife, two young children, and a baby on the way to support.

            “Ron was there.”

            “And what did his Weasleyness have to say?”

            “He accused you of knowing about it and lying to me. He brought up Dumbledore’s death again, how you knew and didn’t tell me. I told him that you had to keep quiet about it or you would’ve blown Snape’s cover…”

            “But he insisted that I’m lying Death Eater scum, yeah I know.”

            “I defended you.”

            “As you should.”

            “But I was wondering, did you know it was going to happen that night?”

            “I wasn’t positive exactly when, but I knew it was going to happen soon,” Draco fibbed. He didn’t think Harry wanted to hear that he knew the date almost a month in advance. “What else has Weasley accused me of? There haven’t been any dead muggleborns turning up around town, have there?”

            “No, but he did accuse you of cursing Katie Bell and poisoning him.”

            “I was dragged in to see Dumbledore over Bell when I wasn’t even in Hogsmeade that day.”

            “Sorry about that; I was sure you’d done it at the time. What about poisoning Ron; do you know who did that?”

            “I didn’t even know he had been poisoned, until Weasley accused me of it before your birthday party. I told him then that I didn’t know anything about it, but if I find out, I’ll be sure to thank them for their efforts.”

            “That’s not funny; Ron almost died.”

            The rebuke made a pit form in the bottom of Draco’s stomach, which he didn’t enjoy at all. “I assure you I was too preoccupied with my mother being in the control of the Dark Lord to bother with Weasley at the time.”

            “Yeah, I’ve told him that and that it must’ve been one of the other budding Death Eaters at the school. But he asked if it wasn’t you, then how _were_ you planning on killing Dumbledore?”

            “I answered that question just last month when your friend interrogated me. Yeah, I had a plan and it was a good one too.”

            “What was it?”

            “Do you remember when the Weasley twins shoved Graham Montague into a broken vanishing cabinet fifth year?”

            “Um, no, not really.”

            “Graham was part of the inquisitorial squad with me and he deducted house points from the Weasley twins. They shoved him into a broken cabinet and he got stuck between the two cabinets for a long time, before he managed to apparate away.”

            “Oh yeah; he was in the hospital wing for a long time, wasn’t he?”

            “Yeah, he was. He told me that when he was trapped, he could sometimes hear things that were happening inside of Hogwarts and at other times he could hear what was happening at Borgin and Burkes, meaning the cabinets were linked. I arranged to buy the cabinet at Borgin and Burkes and my plan was to fix the cabinet at Hogwarts. I moved it into the room of hidden things and tried to mend it, but gave up.”

            “How would a vanishing cabinet kill Dumbledore?”

            “Do you know how vanishing cabinets work?”

            “Um, they vanish things?”

            “Very good, Malfoy, and they make them reappear in the other cabinet.”

            “Alright.”

            “I was gonna use the cabinets to open the school to Death Eaters, who would help me subdue and conquer Dumbledore.”

            “That’s a bit mental, isn’t it? Bringing Death Eaters into the school?”

            “Well it’s better than poisoning Weasley, isn’t it?”

            “Yeah, it is. But what did you mean when you said Ron interrogated you? At my birthday party?”

            “No, before it. I didn’t want to get into a fight with him during your party, so I arranged to meet him before your party, at Grimmauld Place. We hashed it out and agreed to a truce. Obviously he felt it was time to end it.”

            “That’s really sweet of you; thank you. But I can’t believe the two of you talked without killing each other.”

            Draco sat up straighter, his chest swelling with pride at Harry’s praise. “Well that’s why I invited Hermione, to make sure Weasley didn’t kill me. Did his Weasleyness accuse me of anything else? I know he had a whole list of nonsense at the time.”

            “Yeah, of abandoning me without telling me where you were going when you went into hiding, even though it was my idea in the first place.” Sev was finished with his bottle. Harry pulled the baby into his lap, but Sev just crawled away. Sev used the wall to pull himself up until standing.

            “Have you thought about not seeing him anymore?” Weasley was a pain and a menace and it’d be better if Draco could get Weasley out of Harry’s life. Then Draco wouldn’t have to worry about his fights with Weasley hurting Harry.

            “I don’t see how that’s possible; he’s an Auror, Hermione’s boyfriend, and I’m friends with his whole family.”

            “You might still see him in passing, but you don’t need to talk to him or go visit him.”

            “I really wish the two of you would get along.”

            And the pit was back in Draco’s stomach again. “He starts it every time, so I don’t know why you’re telling me that. I arranged the truce, not him. He’s the one who broke it.”

            “You start it too sometimes. Why do you do things to antagonize him?”

            “Because he does stuff to antagonize me, like trying to convince my husband that I’m lying to him about bloody Aunt Bella of all people. I hated the woman; she tortured me.” Scorpius let go of Draco’s nipple then and let out a loud piercing wail. Harry too didn’t look too happy about what he’d said. “Sorry Scorp, Father’s calming down right now.”

            “Alright, let’s change the subject. Did you exercise Scorp’s leg yet today?”

            “Yeah, I did while you were gone,” Draco said while patting Scorp’s back as he and the baby calmed down.

            Scorp and Teddy were done nursing, so Draco handed them over to Harry and went back to studying for his NEWTs. Harry was quickly immersed in childcare duties and forgot all about questioning Narcissa regarding Bellatrix’s funeral.

            Draco couldn’t stop thinking about their argument while he was supposed to be studying. Harry had asked him again to get along with Ronald Weasley. That was an impossibility akin to asking fire to get on with ice. But then he couldn’t push the image from his mind of the look on Harry’s face when he’d been ranting about Ron. Harry had just seemed so disappointed in him; sad, and even a little defeated. He didn’t ever want Harry to look at him like that again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The truce between Ron and Draco wasn’t permanent, so all it took was a trigger to set it off again. But the good news is that Draco has realized how much the fighting is hurting Harry and is of a mind for a more permanent truce. It couldn’t happen soon enough, because they’ll find out about Harry’s pregnancy next chapter.


	50. Chapter50

            It was Monday August tenth when Draco woke up feeling run down. His head hurt and his body had that achy feeling you get when you’re sick. Being a wizard, there weren’t many times in his life when he had felt ill, so he wasn’t used to it and he stayed in bed, letting Harry respond to the monitoring charms.

            Draco didn’t have time to be sick. He had three young babies and he was supposed to be working on his NEWTS. He’d already taken a day off last week to formalize another truce with Ronald Weasley. Since their fighting was hurting Harry, he proposed that they each agree not to ever again mention their grievances with each other in front of Harry. Ron hadn’t wanted to, because it meant keeping his mouth shut and just letting his best friend continue to be married to an arse. Harry stepped in then and went off on Ron about how sick to death of the bickering he was and that it couldn’t continue. Harry didn’t outright say it, but it was implied that his friendship with Ron would be terminated if Ron didn’t agree. So Ron had signed.

            Personally, Draco thought the contract was more than fair, because they were both agreeing to the terms. He would never again be able to mention that it was Ron’s fault his son was crippled, which given the fact that there was no guarantee Scorp would ever be healed, would be hard. He wasn’t even allowed to mention it if someone else brought it up, but he was smooth enough to change the subject or he could always cite the contract. Ron, on the other hand, was only giving up his right to mention a number of anti-Draco statements that Harry had already said he didn’t believe and didn’t want to hear again.

            Plus, the contract left everything up to Harry. Harry would decide how much time he spent with each of them and whether one of them was in violation of mentioning one of their past grievances. He was even in charge of doling out punishments for violations, which according to the contract would be harsh words or days without seeing or communicating with the guilty party. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, because he had no desire to punish either of them, but if this contract would stop the fighting, then he would agree.

            Harry had gone around with a giant smile on his face the entire day. He was so full of hope that the arguing was done that he couldn’t help but be happy. And he didn’t forget that the truce was Draco’s idea in the first place, which made him proud of his husband. Draco certainly liked the feeling of Harry being proud of him far better than when Harry was upset with him. That feeling alone was almost enough to make him want to play nice with Weasley.

            A smile came to Harry’s face as he remembered the truce, while acquiring a bottle for Sev. He gave Sev the bottle on the floor of the nursery and took Teddy and Scorp back to his bedroom for to Draco to nurse. He had thought Draco was just sleepy this morning, but when he came back into the room with a baby in each arm, Draco had his head in his hands.

            “What’s wrong?” Harry asked handing Scorp over and sitting next to Draco with Teddy in his lap.

            “I don’t feel well,” Draco answered, while removing the breast pump, so that he could nurse.

            “Do you think you’re getting sick?”

            “I hope not.” While Draco was talking, they heard the pounding of little fists on the nursery wards. “You better go get Sev; I’ll nurse Scorp and Edward.”

            Sev was in the nursery banging on the ward with one hand, with the bottle in the other, holding it up to his mouth to drink.

            “Sev, couldn’t you just drink your bottle and give Daddy a minute? Father’s sick,” Harry said, picking Sev up and taking the baby back to Draco in the bed.

            Harry sat down on the bed with Sev and watched Draco nurse Scorp and Teddy. “Can I check your temperature?” he asked Draco.

            “Yeah, go ahead.”

            Harry cast a temperature measuring spell that he had perfected from drawing all those baby baths, which revealed that Draco didn’t have a fever. “No fever,” he said. “Do you have any other symptoms? Runny nose, swore throat, cough?”

            “No, I just feel achy and my head hurts.”

            “Well it’s best if you stay in bed today and rest. I’ll watch the boys. Maybe you should take some Pepper-up, just in case.”

            “Thanks,” Draco said and lay back down on the bed, letting Edward and Scorp adjust to his reclined position, since he still felt horrible.

            Harry called Tea Cup and asked her to bring Draco a glass of water, breakfast in bed, and a vial of Pepper-Up, which the elf did.

            When the babies finished nursing, Harry put Sev down on the floor and scooped up Scorp and Teddy, carrying them each in one arm as he walked to the nursery saying, “Come with Daddy, Sev.”

            Harry put Teddy down on one play mat and Scorp down on another, before going back for Sev, who was out in the hall, banging on the nursery wards in the opposite direction to how he was usually stuck, since the wards didn’t let babies cross in either direction. He took Sev over to the changing table where he started the morning nappy changes and dressing the babies for the day. After that he did Scorp’s morning exercises and then read to the babies for a bit. It got hectic in the nursery around ten, when Teddy pooped and Sev wanted attention, but Merlin fetched Narcissa from upstairs to help.

            Draco went back to sleep while Harry and his mother watched the babies. He woke up again at eleven thirty and felt a bit better. He still felt achy and his head wasn’t completely right, but the throbbing pounding pain was gone, so he went to the nursery where he found Harry and the boys. He helped Harry take the boys downstairs for lunch and called Mipsy.

            When Mipsy appeared, Draco said, “Bring me two bowls of sweet potatoes and one bowl of baby cereal, Mipsy.”

“Right away, Master Draco Malfoy, sir. But is Master Draco Malfoy, sir, wanting to know that Master Harry Malfoy, sir, smells pregnant, sir?” Mipsy asked.

            “Yes Mipsy. It’s very good of you to tell me right away like this. You may go,” Draco said, with a smile cracking his face as he fastened Scorp’s bib in place, despite the fact he still felt awful. “Did you hear that, Harry? You’re finally pregnant!”

            “Yeah; I can’t believe it,” Harry replied sedately, as the news slowly set in.

            “You better believe it! We’re gonna have a daughter,” Draco said, taking Harry into his arms and pressing their lips together. But his skin burned where it touched Harry’s skin and his lips were shocked when they touched Harry’s lips. “Ow!” Draco pulled away quickly. “What was that?”

            “No idea. I didn’t feel anything,” Harry replied with a shrug.

            “Your skin burned and your lips shocked me.”

            “It must have something to do with you being sick. Go sit down and we’ll feed our boys,” Harry said, letting his hand feel his lower abdomen.

            They went back to putting bibs on their boys and then the three bowls of food arrived, which were fed to the babies.            Narcissa came down and joined them for lunch and Draco nursed first Scorp and then Edward while they ate.

            Harry tucked into his plate with a large glass of nausea reducing tea and said, “Cissy, we’ve good news.” Being around Lucius and Andy so much had started to wear off on Harry and he had started calling his mother-in-law by her nickname.

            “Oh? What’s that dear?” Narcissa asked.

            “I’m pregnant!” Harry announced.

            “That’s great! But why doesn’t Draco look happy about it?”

            “Draco still feels sick.”

            “Oh that’s too bad. Did you take some Pepper-Up?”

            “Yeah, this morning. It had no effect,” Draco answered.

            “Do you need me to take you to St. Mungo’s, Dragon?”

            “No, not yet mother.”

            “Cissy, where’s Andy today? I want to tell her the good news,” Harry said.

            “She’s meeting with her real estate agent; she’s signing the papers today to sell her house and she has offers to look over for selling Dora’s house,” Narcissa replied.

            “We can tell her and Father at dinner,” Draco said sedately. He didn’t feel like celebrating; he felt more like taking a nap, even after he’d slept all morning. He hadn’t been this tired since he was pregnant.

            They finished lunch and then Draco and Narcissa helped Harry back up the stairs with the three babies. Well Draco started off carrying Edward, but he suddenly felt a bit dizzy and stopped on the stairs, so that he didn’t fall with the baby.

            Narcissa put Scorp down in the swing and went back to get Edward from Draco and asked, “Are you alright dear? Are you sure it’s Harry and not you that’s pregnant?”

            “Pretty sure. We’ve only been doing it the one way and the elf said it was Harry. I’m just sick,” Draco replied, standing up and taking a step up the stairs, despite the fact that the room was spinning a bit.

            “Alright dear. Call me if you need anything,” Narcissa said and then took Remmy upstairs to the nursery, where she concentrated on helping Harry with the babies, but kept an ear peeled for Draco.

            Draco didn’t know how he made it back up those stairs, but he kept telling himself to just take one more stair at a time. Then he was up and went straight to his bed, where he passed out. He slept until the nausea in his stomach woke him. He tried to run for the bathroom, but he got tangled up in Harry’s arms, because Harry had lain down with him sometime while he was asleep. He freed himself of Harry’s arms and then ran for the loo, barely making it to the sink before his lunch came back up.

            “Draco? What’s wrong?” Harry asked, waking up and discovering his husband hunched over the sink. Like their bathroom at the Villa, Draco’s bathroom didn’t have a toilet, because one wasn’t needed. That was starting to look like an oversight, given that Harry was pregnant and likely to suffer from morning sickness in the near future. “Isn’t it supposed to be me puking?”

            “Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like that,” Draco answered, before leaning down and letting another wave of vomit leave his mouth. This didn’t feel like morning sickness nausea, it felt more like stomach flu nausea.

            Draco hoped it was over and wiped his mouth, before brushing his teeth.

            “What’s wrong?” Harry asked concerned.

            Draco spit the toothpaste out and rinsed his mouth. “I woke up and had to puke; guess I’m really sick.”

            “Come here,” Harry said.

            Harry pulled Draco into his arms, but Draco pulled away saying, “Ow! You’re skin’s burning me again.”

            “Draco, I think there’s something really wrong with you; you’ve been sleeping all day and I don’t feel any burning. In fact, your touch feels really good to me. I normally don’t fall asleep so quickly, but I lay down next to you and wrapped my arms around you and it just felt so good that I drifted right off.”

             “Um, maybe you shouldn’t touch me right now; I don’t want you getting sick too. Give me a couple of days to rest and if I’m still sick, then I’ll go to St. Mungo’s,” Draco replied, wanting to get passed Harry to the bed, but not wanting to touch Harry and risk being burnt again. Instead he turned to the sink and cast a vanishing charm on the mess. The elves could do it, but it gave Draco an excuse to stand there while he hoped Harry moved.

            “Yeah, okay,” Harry said and moved to grab Draco’s arm to steady Draco, but then thought better of it. “It sure would be nice to have a toilet in here for when it’s me throwing up.”

            “There is a toilet in here. It just has to be revealed.” Draco stepped over to where the toilet went, but hadn’t been in his memory, and cast a finite on the wall and the floor. The toilet materialized out of thin air, making this loo look just like the one in the third bedroom. With Harry pregnant, they would need the toilet.

            “Brilliant,” Harry said and exited the bathroom.

            Draco followed Harry out and crawled back into bed, more exhausted than when he’d first lain down.

            Harry thought about lying down with Draco, but didn’t want to make Draco worse. Instead he went to the study and wrote Hermione and Mrs. Weasley telling them the good news. He included a mention of Draco’s mysterious illness and asked if she knew what it could be. He barely got the letters written before Teddy woke up and he had to go back to the nursery to transfer Teddy to the swing.

            Harry’s afternoon was busy with childcare. He checked on Draco again before dinner, bringing Teddy and Scorp to nurse. Draco didn’t seem to be feeling any better, so Harry called Mipsy to bring Draco dinner in bed.

            Harry and Narcissa took the three boys downstairs for dinner and Harry told Lucius and Andy the good and the bad news; that he was pregnant and Draco was sick, respectively.

            “This is wonderful, Harry! I couldn’t be more pleased,” Lucius announced and hugged Harry firmly in a manner in which Lucius had never hugged Harry before.

            Harry thought Lucius must mean it too, because of the gigantic smile Lucius had on his face, like the Cheshire cat; he wished Draco had smiled like that. But then he knew Draco was really sick. Draco had smiled a bit, which was probably really hard, given how awful he was feeling.

            “Congratulations,” Andy said with a tight smile, although she kept her displeasure with the situation to herself. Sure it had taken Harry and Draco months of trying to conceive, but her grandson was still just under four months old. With three babies, it was far too soon for them to be having another one.

            Andy stayed and helped Harry with the nightly routine of bathing the babies, changing nappies, dressing them for bed, and reading bedtime stories.

            Just before bed, Harry brought Scorp and Teddy to Draco to nurse. He went back for Sev, who he brought into their bed with them, handing a bottle to. He kept Sev in between him and Draco, not wanting to touch his husband for fear that he’d make Draco worse.

            “How are you feeling now?” Harry asked.

            “No longer nauseous, but my head is pounding again like it was this morning.”

            “Is there anything I can do for you?”

            “No, but I’m gonna sleep in the spare bed in the nursery tonight; I’m exhausted and I don’t think I’ll be able to wake up and go that far in the middle of the night to nurse.”

            “I could get them for you. You really only have to nurse Scorp and I can give Teddy and Sev bottles.”

            “No, you’re pregnant; you need to get your rest. I don’t want you getting sick too. It will be so much worse for you, since you’re pregnant.”

            “Yeah, I still can’t believe I’m finally pregnant,” Harry said with a smile and letting his hand drift down to his stomach again.

            “If I didn’t feel like crap, I’d take you to Grimmauld Place and shag you senseless to celebrate. I want you to know how much I love you and that baby you’re carrying; I want this more than anything else in the world.”

            “Thanks, that means a lot to me. You can shag me when you feel better,” Harry promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they’re finally pregnant! Yay! Next chapter we’ll find out what’s wrong with Draco.


	51. Chapter51

            Draco woke up in the nursery Tuesday feeling better than he’d felt the day before. His body still ached and his head was a bit sore, but his head wasn’t pounding, he wasn’t dizzy, and he didn’t feel nauseous. He summoned a house elf for a bottle for Sev, before retrieving Scorp and Edward from their cribs and bringing them over to the spare bed to nurse.

            Draco had high hopes that he was getting over his mysterious illness and that everything would go back to normal today, but then Harry came in and sat next to him. Their arms brushed and Harry put his hand over Draco’s hand and the contact burned.

            “Ouch!” Draco exclaimed, pulling his hand and arm away and jostling Edward in the process, since the baby was on his chest nursing.

            “Still sick then?” Harry asked.

            “Not as bad as yesterday, but yeah,” Draco replied.

            “Well then you should go back to sleep in the bedroom and I’ll watch the boys.”

            “What about you? How are you feeling? Nauseous at all?”

            “No, nothing yet.”

            “I’m glad; I hope you have an easy pregnancy.” Draco gave Harry a small smile. “Did you tell your boss yet?”

            “No, why would I tell him?”

            “Because you can’t work when you’re pregnant and you’ll get paid for your time off. You should owl him.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll do it right now,” Harry said.

            Harry went to the study to write Auror Robards a letter, but once he had a scroll of parchment in front of him, he couldn’t think of what to write. How should he tell his boss he was pregnant? He stared at the blank parchment for several long minutes, but then his stomach rumbled and he wanted to go downstairs to eat, so he finally just wrote down the bare facts.

 

            Dear Auror Robards,

            I’m writing to inform you that I won’t be able to report back to work soon, because I found out yesterday that I’m pregnant. I still plan on being an Auror and I’ll resume work sometime after the baby is born.

                                                                                    -Sincerely, Harry Malfoy

 

            Harry called Viper for an owl and sent the message off, before going into the nursery and getting the three babies from Draco. He put the twins into their stroller and carried Teddy down to the dining room to have breakfast.

            Draco thought that he could probably make it downstairs to eat, but then he thought of how bloody awful he’d felt yesterday after the one time he had gone down. He didn’t want to risk that the same thing would happen again. Thus he went to his bedroom with one of his history of magic books and called an elf to bring his breakfast. He spent the day reading in bed.

            By the time Harry came in with Edward and Scorp needing their midday milk, Draco was exhausted again. Harry called an elf for lunch for Draco and then took the boys back, so that Draco could go back to sleep after eating.

            Draco woke up from his afternoon nap feeling surprisingly well. He went into the nursery and retrieved Scorp and Edward from Harry, taking the babies over to the spare bed to nurse, which he felt like he was doing a lot of these days. Really he was doing it no more than usual, but was spending so much less time than usual awake. After he nursed the babies, he felt good enough to risk going downstairs for dinner.

            Harry didn’t want to risk Draco carrying a baby downstairs when he barely thought Draco could carry himself down the stairs. He put Sev and Scorp in the stroller and carried Teddy down behind Draco. They made it alright and it seemed Draco was finally feeling better, because they had the happy family meal that they were supposed to have yesterday to celebrate the much anticipated pregnancy. But still, he worried that Draco wasn’t completely better and that his touch might still burn, so he kept his hands off of his husband.

            Harry kept his hands off of Draco all through their usual nightly routine, which Draco was finally feeling well enough to help him with. They even took separate baths that night, but he was relieved when his husband crawled into their bed and beckoned him forward to lie down together. Still, they kept their distance and stayed to their respective sides of the bed and didn’t cuddle like they usually did.

            Sometime in the night, Harry rolled over and his skin pressed against Draco’s skin. Draco woke up with the sound of the monitoring charm going off and feeling like his skin was on fire. Still, he had three babies who were up needing to eat, so he stumbled out of bed in the direction of the nursery, but he didn’t get that far. He took about three steps before he collapsed to the floor and started vomiting, before passing out.

            “Master Harry Malfoy, sir, must be waking up now, sir! Master Draco Malfoy, sir, is very sick, sir!” Mipsy squeaked in a very high pitched voice that was indicative of her distress.

            Meanwhile, the painting of Merlin had run to the third floor and entered the painting of Nicholas Malfoy, which had been moved there after scowling at Harry and Hermione. “Wake up now! It’s an emergency!” Merlin called.

            “What?” Narcissa asked, jumping out of bed.

            “You too, Lucius! There are three babies crying and Draco is passed out on the floor,” Merlin said.

            “Oh dear,” Narcissa said before grabbing her robe and putting it on as she raced down the stairs.

            Lucius was only a moment behind his wife and then he was running down the stairs after her. Narcissa went into the nursery to pass out bottles to Sev and Edward and then struggled with Scorp trying to get the baby to take a bottle. Lucius went to the bedroom, where Harry and an elf were bent over Draco, who was unconscious on the floor.

            “Step aside, I’m apparating him to St. Mungo’s,” Lucius announced.

            Harry and the elf backed up and Lucius picked his son’s body up into his arms, wishing Draco was twenty pounds lighter and that he had the strength of his youth. Luckily Harry noticed Lucius’ struggling and cast a lightening charm on Draco that allowed him to redouble his grip on his son, before he disapparated, reappearing in the lobby of St. Mungo’s.

            “Harry, I need help in here,” Narcissa called.

            “Yeah?” Harry asked, still confused as he entered the nursery.

            “I just handed Edward the bottle and he’s never been left with one unsupervised before. Can you check on him?” Narcissa asked, while struggling to get Scorp to accept the bottle she was offering. Scorp would take a suck and then turn his head and whine or say no. Then the process would repeat.

            Harry scooped Teddy up, taking the baby to the rocking chair. Teddy was clutching the bottle tightly as he sucked and never let go of the thing while Harry moved the baby. On his way to the rocking chair, he passed Sev’s crib and noticed that Sev was contently sucking on a bottle. “Teddy and Sev seem fine. What’s wrong with Draco?”

            “I don’t know, Harry. I didn’t even see him; I came straight here to pass out bottles,” Narcissa answered as Scorp continued to fuss at her.

            “Have you ever seen anything like this happen before?”

            “No, never. Draco hasn’t been sick since the twins were born and even then it wasn’t like this.”

            “I’m scared.”

            “I know. You can go to St. Mungo’s as soon as you get Edward back to sleep.”

            Harry silently urged Teddy to drink faster, because he wanted to get to his husband. He couldn’t believe that he was finally pregnant and then something like this happens and Draco’s rushed to the hospital. It just wasn’t fair.

            Teddy finally finished the bottle and Harry put the baby back into his crib, not bothering to burp him; He was rarely burped anymore now that he was sitting up on his own. Harry looked to Narcissa, who was still struggling with Scorp and a mostly full bottle, before apparating away to St. Mungo’s.

            It was only a few minutes before a medi-witch escorted Harry to the waiting room where Lucius was waiting.

            “Where’s Draco? What’s wrong with him?” Harry asked his father-in-law.

            “The healers are in with him now trying to answer that very question,” Lucius answered. “You should sit down and try to remain calm; stress isn’t good for pregnancies.”

            Lucius’ voice sounded more concerned and kinder that Harry had ever heard it before. It made him do a double take, wondering who this man was and what had been done with his Death Eater of a father-in-law.

            “Sit,” Lucius said again, pulling Harry’s wrist to get him to collapse into the chair.

            Harry and Lucius sat and waited for five minutes, during which Lucius kept up an endless stream of assurances that Draco would be fine and Harry wasn’t to worry. Then a medi-witch came out and questioned Harry and Lucius on Draco’s condition. Harry gave the details of Draco’s mystery illness and Lucius relayed Draco’s medical history.

            “Madam, if it’s possible, I’d like you to get Harry a cup of tea; he’s newly pregnant and I don’t want him to get ill,” Lucius said.

            “How long have you known you were pregnant?” the medi-witch asked.

            “Since yesterday,” Harry answered.

            “The same day your husband became sick,” the medi-witch said significantly.

            “Does that have something to do with Draco being sick? I’m the one who’s pregnant, not him,” Harry said.

            “It’s a likely factor that is probably exacerbating his symptoms, although it’s not the only issue. If you’ll come back with me, I’d like to get you checked out and make sure you’re not sick too,” the medi-witch replied.

            “Yes, that’s an excellent idea. And maybe you can get him the tea while he’s back there?” Lucius asked, standing up and pulling Harry with him towards the door. He had enough experience being around pregnant people to know they needed the anti-nausea tea.

            Harry stalled at first, still wondering what was going on, but Lucius was pulling him towards where he thought Draco was. He suddenly realized that he was likely to get to see Draco and find out how Draco was if he went, so he did.

            The medi-witch led Harry and Lucius through the emergency room and instructed Harry to sit on a bed next to Draco’s bed. The medi-witch conferred with another medi-witch and a healer, before she began taking measurements. Then a healer came over and started preforming diagnostic tests on Harry, but while all of this was happening, Harry kept his focus on Draco, who was lying unconscious on the next bed over. When the tests were over, the healer left to confer with the other healer, who had been working on Draco.

            Finally Draco’s healer came over and said, “Hello, I’m healer Smith. It looks like you and your baby are in good, healthy condition, Auror Malfoy.”

            “Okay, but what about Draco?” Harry asked worriedly.

            “Your husband is quite ill. He came in suffering from dehydration and magical exhaustion. From the patient history medi-witch Jones obtained, it seems that Lord Malfoy has suffered from both before, although not at the same time.”

            “He has?” Harry asked interrupting.

            “Yes Harry, after the twins were born, Draco was examined by the muggles and they said that he was dehydrated, from the breast feeding and not drinking enough water. And during his pregnancy, Draco was magically exhausted, because his body was supporting two babies without a second father to draw power from,” Lucius explained.

            “Oh,” Harry replied and turned back to the healer. “Is he going to be okay?”

            “Yes. We are infusing fluids back into his system to combat the dehydration and rest will ameliorate the magical exhaustion. But the source of this problem needs to be watched, to make sure he doesn’t wind up back here again,” Healer Smith said.

            “What source?” Harry asked.

            “The main source is the breast feeding. His body is making enough milk to sustain three babies, at least, and from his medical history it doesn’t seem like he is monitoring the amount of time he spends breast pumping or the amount of fluid he is producing. It’s likely that he’s producing more milk than needed for three babies. He is doing so with breasts that aren’t even a full A cup and on a diet that only provides a fraction of the needed calories and not nearly enough water; his magic is making up the difference. He needs to eat and drink more and pump less. He should be taking no more milk from his body than is needed to feed your children.”

            “The breast feeding is making him sick?” Harry asked disbelievingly. “He always uses the breast pump that much and he hasn’t been sick before.”

            “There is a new factor exacerbating his condition as of two days ago: your pregnancy. It is possible that he was still able to draw magic from you to keep himself from going dangerously low.”

            “I don’t think so. He said that when he was pregnant, he could feel the magic transfer and it felt good, but after the babies were born and I touched him, there was nothing.”

            “Yes, well the transfer rates would be much lower than when he was pregnant. If the two of you maintained extensive skin contact during sleep every night and he was bordering on magical exhaustion, he would’ve pulled from you at very low levels that he probably wouldn’t be able to detect. It’s likely that he was only ever dipping too low at night, when he wasn’t actively eating or drinking, but was expressing milk. That makes it even less likely that he’d notice than if it were to happen while he was awake.

            “Oh.”

            “But as of yesterday, the flow of magic is reversed. Instead of Lord Malfoy drawing small amounts from you, you are drawing large amounts from him. Large amounts that he doesn’t have to spare, which exacerbated his own magical exhaustion and led to the burning feeling he described. The magical exhaustion explains the headaches, general achy feeling, dizziness, nausea, and finally the loss of consciousness.”

            “Bloody bugger,” Harry replied, dropping his head into his hands.

            “The best thing you can do for your husband right now, Mr. Malfoy, is to go home. You need to stay away from him and avoid skin to skin contact with him at all costs, at least until he wakes up and possibly until the end of your pregnancy. You don’t have your husband to draw on as a source of strength, so you need to keep yourself healthy and well rested. Go home to sleep and come back in the morning. You can even bring the babies with you and we’ll help your husband nurse them.”

            “No, I can’t go home. How could I possibly rest when Draco’s lying there like that?” Harry asked, indicating Draco’s bed with the wave of his hand.

            “You need to take care of yourself, Auror Malfoy. Do you think your husband would want you to lose this new baby, because you were too concerned about him to take care of yourself?” Healer Smith asked.

            “Certainly not, Harry. Draco wants this new baby, you know that,” Lucius said, wrapping his arms around Harry in a comforting gesture.

            Harry was extremely weirded out with having Lucius’ arms around him, but he thought Lucius was probably trying to be nice, so he ignored it and just hoped it stopped soon. “If I go home, there’s no way I’ll be able to sleep; I’ll just be too worried about Draco and wondering if he’s awake yet,” Harry replied.

            “I’ll give you a sleeping draught that is safe to take during pregnancies. You can go home and take it or you can take it here and sleep in this bed,” Healer Smith offered.

            “Here, please,” Harry replied immediately. He didn’t want to be away from Draco, even if he had to be asleep either way.

            “Alright. I’ll have medi-witch Jones bring it to you,” Healer Smith replied.

            Healer Smith made some notes in Harry’s charts and then went to talk to the medi-witches.

            “Harry, will you be alright here with Draco if I leave? I want to get back to the Manor and make sure Cissy is alright with the boys,” Lucius said.

            “Yeah, you can go,” Harry replied, thinking it would be the perfect way to get Lucius away from him, because Lucius was still creeping him out.

            “I’ll wait until you’re asleep and then go,” Lucius replied. He was concerned about leaving Harry zonked out on sleeping potion and Draco unconscious, but he was more concerned about what might be happening at home with his wife left alone with three babies.

            Medi-witch Jones soon came back and gave Harry the sleeping draught. Harry fell asleep and Lucius went back to the Manor, where Narcissa had all three babies back to sleep. He sent a house elf to St. Mungo’s with orders to watch Harry and Draco and report back if anything happened, before going back to sleep himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we know what’s wrong with Draco. What do you think?


	52. Chapter52

            Draco regained consciousness in the early hours of Wednesday morning. He drank a glass of water at the urging of a medi-witch and promptly turned over and went back to sleep.

            The next time Draco woke up, it was morning and his mother was there with Scorp and Edward. Looking at his babies made his chest ache, so he looked down at the source of his pain. He then realized that not only had he been stripped of his paternity robes, but his breast pump was gone. His chest felt like it was on fire with all the backflow of milk. He reached out for Scorp, settling Scorp onto his right side and then for Edward, letting out a sigh of relief as Edward latched on and the pressure started waning.

            “Mother, why’d they take my breast pump off?” Draco asked. “I have to pump.”

            “I don’t know,” Narcissa replied.

            “Lord Malfoy, you are pumping too much; that’s why you are in here. From now on, you can only pump what your babies drink and no more,” Medi-witch Thompson said.

            “But what about Sev? He’s not here and I always pump for him and give it to him in a bottle,” Draco replied.

            “Is he one of your babies?” the medi-witch asked.

            “Yes, he’s my oldest. He’s Scorp’s twin,” Draco replied.

            “Well then bring him down here and let’s get him latched on to a teat as soon as one opens up,” Medi-witch Thompson replied.

            “Excuse me?” Draco asked, appalled that she had just referred to a part of his body as a teat.

            “Andy’s feeding him a bottle. I better go stop her,” Narcissa said, standing up and apparating away.

            “Drink your glass of water and then we’ll talk; half of the reason you’re in here is dehydration,” Medi-witch Thompson said.

            Draco drank his water and by the time he was done, his mother was back with Sev.

            “Andy had just started feeding him; she said she changed his nappy and dressed him first,” Narcissa said, bouncing Sev in the hopes that the baby wouldn’t start crying for milk while he waited.

            “Okay,” Draco said. He was nervous about nursing Sev again after all of these months of bottle feeding.

            “How’d you get three babies all of different sizes and under nine months in age?” the medi-witch asked.

            “He had twins and then my nephew was orphaned, so we took him in,” Narcissa explained.

            “And when he was orphaned, Lord Malfoy started using his breast pump excessively to keep up,” Medi-witch Thompson said knowingly.

            Draco didn’t answer that, but concentrated on the two suckling babies on his chest. He really hoped that they were both extremely hungry today, because his chest was exceedingly full and this nurse didn’t seem to want to let him use the breast pump at all.

            Sev got tired of waiting for breakfast and started crying. Narcissa tried getting him to suck on a soother, but he just started screaming before either Edward or Scorp were done.

            “Give him here Mother. I’ll take Edward off for now and put him back on later,” Draco said, removing his elongated nipple from Edward’s mouth.

            Edward cried at first, but Narcissa quickly made the hand off of Sev to Draco and took Edward. She offered him a soother and rocked the baby until he quieted down and forgot that he wasn’t finished eating.

            Draco offered his nipple to Sev and said, “Now Sev, do _not_ bite Father or you’re gonna be in big trouble, young man.” Sev was so hungry that he latched on eagerly and didn’t even think of biting Draco, especially because he wasn’t cutting any new teeth at the moment.

            “By the way Draco, Scorp went to sleep in the middle of the night after barely touching his bottle. He’s bound to need more than usual this morning to make up for it,” Narcissa said.

            “That explains his unusually ravenous appetite,” Draco replied.

            “Your babies can spend the night with you here at the hospital. We’re going to move you to a private room soon and we’ll put a couple of cribs in your room. Although, I don’t think we’ve ever tried to fit three cribs into one of the maternity rooms before,” Medi-witch Thompson said.

            “Paternity,” Draco corrected. He was seriously not liking this medi-witch. He was also getting the distinct impression that she was muggle-born and he wanted a real medi-witch. He glanced over at Harry, who was still sound asleep, to make sure Harry didn’t overhear what he was about to say. “Are you going to be my medi-witch when I’m moved?”

            “No, I’ll stay here in emergency and a couple of the nurses over in maternity will take good care of you,” the medi-witch replied.

            Draco let out a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t actually have to ask for this witch’s removal, if he could just hold out for a little bit longer.

            Sev and Scorp both released Draco’s nipples at about the same time, so Draco handed Sev over to his mother and took Edward back, encouraging Edward to latch back on. He kept hold of Scorp, having nowhere to put the baby and refusing to hand his son over to the hated medi-witch.

            When Edward finished nursing, Medi-witch Thompson moved Draco to a private room in the maternity/paternity ward. They left Draco’s bed in the middle of the room, with two cribs already pushed against the rear wall. Narcissa followed after him with Sev and another couple of medi-wizards followed after her with Harry and his bed; Harry was still passed out on sleeping potions.

            A nurse came in and introduced herself, “Hello, I’m nurse Rosier. Do you remember me, Cousin Draco?”

            Acacia Rosier’s father, Evan Rosier was Narcissa’s cousin. He’d been killed after the first war with Voldemort, because he’d refused to allow himself to be captured and had fought until the end.

            “Yes, of course. It’s good to see you, Cousin,” Draco replied. The Malfoy family and the Rosier family spent Samhain together every year. There weren’t many Rosiers left and there weren’t many Malfoys either, so she knew the patient she was treating, but hospital policy dictated that she introduce herself formally, even with relatives.

            “Hello Acacia. How is your mother?” Narcissa asked.

            “Good to see you, Cousin Cissy. My mother is as well,” Acacia replied.

            “Good to hear,” Narcissa replied.

            With the greetings out of the way, Acacia went into her official hospital required speech, “I’ll be taking care of your family this morning. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. I can get you food and water and I can take your babies off your hands if you need that. Also you should feel free to bring in anything you need from home, such as toys and clothes for the babies. The babies are free to come and go, but I’m afraid we have to keep track of them and you need to let me or another medi-witch know before they leave the room.”

            “I’m glad it’s you assigned to me,” Draco said.

            “That’s very good to hear, Cousin Draco,” Acacia replied.

            “Well if the babies are to be staying here, I better get some supplies. Edward and Scorp need nappy changes,” Narcissa said.

            “Oh we have nappies and wipes. I can change them or I can bring the supplies to you to change them,” Acacia said.

            “Can you change them here, in front of Draco? It’s just with Harry being the dad, we’re concerned about security and letting the babies out of our sight,” Narcissa replied.

            “Oh sure, I can do that. Let me just get a changing cart and be back,” Acacia said before leaving the room.

            Acacia came back a few minutes later pushing a floating changing table, which she wedged into place along the wall by the door, on Harry’s side of the room. “I was hoping we could make do with just two cribs, because this room is already rather crowded,” Acacia said, checking to make sure she had adequate supplies in the changing table, which she did.

            “That’s fine; Sev and Scorp can share for now,” Draco replied.

            “If you’ve got everything handled, I’ll just leave Sev here and be back with some toys,” Narcissa said, putting Sev into one of the cribs.

            “Mother, do get me some of my history of magic books to read,” Draco requested.

            Narcissa agreed and apparated back to the Manor.

            Acacia changed Scorp and Edward’s nappies. When she handed Edward back to Draco, he offered Edward a nipple. He didn’t think the baby was hungry but he hoped Edward was, because his chest still ached. Edward took a few sucks, but then let go and started babbling.

            “Can you trade me for Scorp? Mother said he didn’t eat in the middle of the night and I want to make sure he’s fed,” Draco said.

            “Yeah, sure. Which one is Scorp again?” Acacia asked. Draco may have been her second cousin, but the only time she’d seen the babies before was at the baby shower.

            “The black haired one.” Today Edward was alternating between bright yellow hair the color of dandelions and yellow green hair, so all three babies had distinctive hair coloring.

            “Right,” Acacia said picking up Scorp and bringing the baby the one step over to Draco’s bed. She handed Scorp to Draco and took Edward from him, setting Edward down in the second crib. “You know, I can push your bed right up against the cribs if that would make caring for them easier, but you really should get some sleep; you’re suffering from magical exhaustion.”

            “Yeah, maybe, but my chest hurts too much to sleep. Maybe you could find my breast pump for me and help me out,” Draco suggested, getting Scorp to successfully latch on.

            “Sorry, but you’re not to be expressing extra milk right now; you’re expressing more milk than you can naturally produce and your body’s drawing on your magic to do so.”

            “But I never got to breast feed the three babies last night. That milk’s still backed up and it hurts. Mother fed Sev and Edward bottles while I was here and Scorp went without.”

            “Let me get your healer to come have a look at you, but I can tell you he wants you expressing less milk,” Acacia said before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her, to give Draco privacy.

            While Acacia was gone, Draco held his left nipple, the one Scorp wasn’t latched onto, out from his body, towards the floor and pinched, letting the milk drip onto the floor. His chest was so full that the milk left his body in a strong gushing squirt. When it started to wane, he shifted his fingers and pinched again, letting loose another strong gush that lasted half a minute, before repeating the process again. The puddle of milk on the floor was growing increasingly large. He found his wand lying by his side in the bed and used it to vanish the puddle, to cover up the evidence of what he’d been doing.

            Draco continued to squirt his excess milk onto the floor and vanish it for a good five minutes before he noticed a wet feeling on his right side, where Scorp was nursing. He turned his head to look at Scorp, who was sucking, but not swallowing. Scorp was using him for a soother, and letting the excess milk dribble out his mouth, back onto Draco’s chest and the underlying hospital bed. Well it was basically the same thing Draco was doing to himself with the other side, so he said, “Good boy Scorp, keep helping Father,” and vanished the growing milk puddle on Scorp’s side.

            It was fifteen minutes before the door opened again. Draco quickly stopped what he was doing and vanished the evidence from the floor, before anyone could catch him expressing the extra milk. Acacia and a male healer in a white coat came in. She immediately went over to the cribs, where Edward was fussing and Sev was entertaining himself by chewing on the crib rails. There was a toy strapped to the side of Sev’s crib that he had been entertaining himself with at first, but in the last few minutes he had gotten bored, used the crib rails to pull himself up, and proceeded to chew the wooden rails.

            “Hi, I’m Healer Richards,” the healer introduced himself, before explaining to Draco his diagnosis of dehydration and magical exhaustion. The treatment was rest, plenty of fluids and food, eliminating physical contact with Harry, and limiting the amount of milk expressed. Then he said that Draco could have the breast pump machine back for thirty minutes, but if Draco’s chest still hurt after that, he had his choice of a pain potion or a sleeping draught, or both.

            Draco agreed and handed Scorp over to be placed in the crib with Sev. Healer Richards gave Draco the breast pump back. While Draco pumped, Healer Richards said, “Your husband is perfectly fine, but we gave him a sleeping draught in the middle of the night. He’s free to leave whenever he wakes up. We didn’t leak either of your conditions to the press, but it’s gotten out that you are a patient here.

            Healer Richards pulled out his copy of the Prophet from the pocket of his robes and handed it to Draco. The headline on the front page read, “Lord Malfoy Pregnant and Hospitalized with Complications.” The story went on to insist that Lord Draco Malfoy was pregnant yet again with Savior Malfoy’s baby, which caused his hospital stay. There was some speculation as to the cause, but the paper had dehydration and magical exhaustion from breast feeding three infants and being pregnant at the same time as the most likely cause, which really wasn’t far off of the mark. What was off the mark was that the article claimed that this pregnancy was an accident and the result of Savior Malfoy’s incredible virility breaking a contraception charm.

            Just as Draco was finishing the article, Narcissa returned with a nappy bag, officially adding more people to the room than could easily fit. Draco showed his mother the paper and said, “Well at least they haven’t figured out that it’s their savior up the duff.”

            “Yes, at least there’s that,” Narcissa agreed, skimming the article.

            Narcissa put the paper down and pulled the expandable swing out of the nappy bag. She placed it on the floor between Draco and Harry’s beds, before unshrinking it and spelling it to be a two seater. She put Scorp and Edward in and spelled it on. For Sev she brought several toys, which she unshrunk and put in his crib.

            Draco’s breakfast arrived in the middle of all of the commotion. The breakfast tray was placed on a floating tabletop in front of him and he set to work eating the prodigious amount of food they had given him. “Do you really expect me to eat all of this?” Draco asked, in between bites. He was hungry, but not _this_ hungry.

            “That is one third the number of calories you consume in a given day with the amount of milk you’ve been expressing. If you were a muggle, you would’ve died of malnutrition months ago,” Healer Richards said.

            “Right, well how about you take half of this away and get me something high calorie to eat instead?”

            “Eat what you can and I’ll make sure you get some ultra-high calorie food with every meal from now on.”

            Draco ate a bagel with cream cheese, the oatmeal with way too much butter and sugar, and his fruit. He left the pancakes and syrup, the tomato juice, and the eggs with bacon.

            By the time Draco finished eating, his half hour of breast pumping was done, so Healer Richards gave him a pain potion and the sleeping draught. It was a few minutes before the pain dulled and then a minute more before he fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

            Harry woke up just before noon to find himself in a room in St. Mungo’s with Draco, their three babies, Narcissa, and Andy.

            “Is Draco alright?” Harry asked, sitting up to get a better look at Draco in the next bed. Draco appeared to be asleep and Narcissa was watching over him, as Sev and Scorp suckled from his chest.

            “He’s fine, Harry. He was up all morning while you were sound asleep. Healer Richards wanted him to go back to sleep, so he gave him a sleeping draught,” Narcissa explained.

            “Is he going to be alright?” Harry asked.

            Andy came over, holding Teddy, and handed the baby to Harry. “He’s going to be fine, Harry. He ate and drank and now he’s back to sleep,” Andy said, summarizing what her sister had told her about the events of this morning. “They’re actually ready to kick you out if you want to go home, Harry.”

            “No, I want to stay here with Draco. Why are the babies here?” Harry asked.

            “Because Healer Richards took away Draco’s breast pump and is making the babies all nurse from the source for the time being,” Narcissa explained.

            “Even Sev? Did he bite Draco?” Harry asked, dreading what Draco’s nipples would look like after being bitten by Sev’s teeth.

            “No, not yet, thank Merlin,” Narcissa answered.

            “You must be hungry, Harry. Do you want the rest of Draco’s breakfast or do you want me to track down a lunch tray for you?” Andy asked.

            “No, I’m actually fine right now. Maybe just some tea,” Harry replied.

            Andy nodded and left the room to find Harry some tea. She came back with a tall glass a few minutes later. By the time Harry finished drinking the tea, lunch was there. He ate his lunch, but Draco’s lunch was left uneaten on Draco’s bedside table, while the remains from breakfast were removed.

            “So Harry, do you want to go home when you finish your lunch?” Andy asked, taking Teddy back from Harry to change the baby’s nappy.

            “No, I’d prefer to stay here with Draco. I don’t want to leave him,” Harry replied.

            “Alright, then what should I bring you to entertain yourself while you’re here?” Andy asked.

            “I don’t know. I’d like some supplies to write Hermione a letter; I’m sure she’ll want to know and Molly too.”

            “Harry, you’re only in here because you don’t want to leave Draco. Draco needs to stay a few days more, but you could take the babies home, put them down for naps in their own cribs, and invite Hermione over to talk. You know Molly and Hermione will want to visit with you and this hospital room is already pretty crowded. Why don’t you go home and I’ll watch after Draco?” Narcissa suggested.

            “Thanks, but I’d really rather stay with him.”

            “Harry, you can’t touch him, you know that right? If you do, your pregnancy will draw magic to you that he can’t afford to donate.”

            “Yeah, I know, but…”

            “But you’re worried about him, I know. We all are,” Narcissa said.

            “Harry, why don’t you invite Molly and Hermione over here and meet them out in the waiting room? You can’t bring them in here, but there’s no reason you can’t go out there and have a nice chat,” Andy suggested.

            Harry agreed and he had finished his lunch, so Andy gave Edward back to Harry and went to firecall the Weasleys for him. Harry put Edward in the swing and then went into the bathroom, to relieve himself and freshen up. By the time he was done, Andy was back.

            “Molly, Ginny, and Hermione will all be right over,” Andy said.

            “Great,” Harry replied. Sev was reaching his little hands out for Harry, so Harry picked the baby up.

            “He wants to walk, Harry. I put his little shoes on, but he wore me out,” Narcissa said.

            “Alright, let’s go Sev,” Harry said, finding his own shoes in the wardrobe that was in the room. He put his shoes on and then set Sev down on the ground, holding the baby up by his little hands.

            Sev lurched forward on wobbly legs and used Harry’s hands to support his weight, Harry following after. They had just barely made it down the hall and found the waiting room when Ginny came through the floo, followed by Hermione and Molly.

            “Oh Harry! You’re alright!” Ginny said coming up to Harry and hugging him sideways, so that she didn’t interfere with Harry’s holding Sev’s hands. “This is Sev, right?”

            “Yeah, Ginny. Hi Hermione, hi Molly,” Harry greeted.

            “Harry dear, we came as soon as we heard. What happened?” Molly asked.

            “Draco passed out in the night; dehydration and magical exhaustion. Apparently it’s my fault, because I was touching him and because of my pregnancy, I’ve been drawing magic from him,” Harry said, leading Sev and the group of witches over to the deserted sitting area.

            “Oh Harry! It’s not your fault; you couldn’t have known,” Hermione said, giving Harry a sideways hug.

            “Yeah, but I knew I was hurting him. Since Monday morning he told me that my touch was painful and burned. I tried not to touch him, honest, but I must’ve moved against him in the night. He was completely drained when he woke up and didn’t even make it out the door to feed the babies,” Harry said, sitting down, but leaving Sev standing up in front of him. Sev lurched forward, he pulled Sev back, and Sev repeated the process.

            “Harry dear, how are you going to get through an entire pregnancy without touching the Draco? Right now it’ll be fine, but as you get further along the baby will draw more and more power from you and then you’ll be magically exhausted too,” Molly said.

            “I don’t think that’ll be a problem, Mrs. Weasley; Harry’s very powerful,” Hermione said.

            “Um, yeah, I don’t think I’ll have a problem. If Draco can make it through a pregnancy with twins without me, then I can make it through a single pregnancy without him. I’m more worried about him. The healers say the problem is he’s breast feeding too much ever since we took in Teddy, but he needs to breast feed or the babies will starve,” Harry replied.

            “The twins are getting older, Harry, and they can be fed more solid foods to make up for a lack of milk,” Molly said.

            “Oh, yeah,” Harry agreed.

            “Have you been here all night, Harry?” Ginny asked, taking in Harry’s messier than normal hair. It looked more like the way he used to wear his hair, before he started combing it for Draco.

            “Yeah, but they gave me a sleeping draught and I just woke up,” Harry answered.

            “Do you want to go home? Are we keeping you?” Molly asked.

            “No, I want to stay here. Even if I can’t touch Draco, I still want to be close to him,” Harry replied.

            “Alright, dear. May I hold Severus?” Molly asked.

            Harry agreed and handed Sev over to Molly for the first time. Sev didn’t have a problem with her, just with being held in general when he wanted to explore. Sev lurched out of her hands a few times, but after seven children she easily caught him each time. “Ginny, I think this one wants to walk about. Do you want to take him for a walk?” Molly asked.

            Ginny walked Sev around the empty waiting room, eager for her first chance to play with Harry’s baby.

            Hermione and Molly asked Harry a few more questions about how his pregnancy was going and there wasn’t much to tell, because this was only the third day of it and so far all of the symptoms had happened to Draco. Then Harry let Hermione and Molly feel his flat stomach, even though there was nothing to feel; he too liked feeling it lately and for some reason he didn’t mind the attention, but he was more than pleased when he managed to shift the topic of conversation to how Ron was doing in the Aurors. He had seen Ron during his birthday party, but they had barely had a chance to talk with all of the fun they were having with the swamp-n-slide.

            “Oh Harry, George told me to tell you that the Swamp-N-Slides are flying off of the shelf faster than he can produce them. Apparently word got out that you had one at your birthday party and now everyone wants to try a Savior party,” Ginny said, coming back around the circle with Sev.

            “That’s great, Ginny. After this hospital stay, I’m sure we can use the money,” Harry replied.

            “Harry, you have medical insurance with the Aurors; Draco’s covered too,” Hermione said. “You did tell Robards you’re pregnant, right?”

            “Yeah, yesterday I wrote him an owl,” Harry answered.

            “That’s good. Have you calculated when you’re due yet?” Hermione asked. Harry gave her a perplexed look in return. “Alright, I’ll take that as a no. Do you know when this baby was conceived?”

            “Yeah, on my birthday,” Harry answered.

            “Alright, so that’s July thirty-first, meaning we can expect another April baby,” Hermione replied.

            “Wow, that’ll be right around the time Teddy was born and then Harry will have four children within sixteen months of each other,” Ginny said, looking up from where she was still walking with Sev on the other side of the room.

            There was some more talk of babies and then Harry switched the conversation back to George and the joke shop. Ginny got tired walking Sev around, mostly because she had to bend over to do it, so Hermione took a spin at it. Then Andy came out of Draco’s room and announced that Teddy and Scorp were down for their naps, which meant Harry should put Sev down too. Andy stayed out in the waiting room with the Weasley witches and Harry took Sev in to Narcissa, who laid Sev down in the crib with Scorp.

            Then Harry went back out to the waiting room to talk to the women some more. But Draco was the person he really wanted to talk to and he didn’t get that chance until just before dinner time, when Draco finally woke up. Molly, Ginny, and Hermione had all gone home half an hour before and Narcissa and Andy were there taking care of the newly awakened babies, so Draco and Harry went out to the waiting room to talk. Draco had missed lunch and now it was time for dinner, so he took his dinner tray with him.

            “Are you alright?” Harry asked, watching Draco eat.

            “Yeah. My head still hurts and now my chest does too, but I feel better than I did this morning when I woke up. The healer came by and said he’ll give me another pain potion and another sleeping draught in a few hours.”

            “It is all my fault that you’re in here.”

            “Harry, what makes you say that?”

            “Because I touched you in your sleep! If I wasn’t drawing off your magical energy, you’d have enough to feed three babies and not pass out.”

            “Harry, this isn’t your fault. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine for getting lazy and always leaving the breast pump on instead of shutting it off when I had enough milk.”

            “But even then, if I’d just stayed to my side of the bed…”

            “Harry, look at me,” Draco said and waited until Harry looked up and met his eyes. “You’re pregnant with _my_ baby and I _love_ that. I _wanted_ you to touch me. Granted it hurt, but I wanted to donate my magic to you, just like you donated your magic to me when I was pregnant. I’m so sorry I’m not strong enough for you…”

            “No, you’re more than strong enough; you’re just already taxed out with the three babies. If I hadn’t brought Teddy home, then you’d only have two babies and would probably be fine.”

            “You know, you really ought to see a mind healer about your pathological need to take blame for everything.”

            “What?”

            “You haven’t noticed how you can’t ever let anyone else take the blame for anything? Not that I mind most of the time, but I was trying to make you feel better, since you’re up the duff with my child and I can’t even touch you, but no, you have to be the martyr and take all of the blame for yourself.”

            “Huh?”

            “So why don’t you just drop it and let’s not assign blame to anyone. Does that make you feel better, or does it eff up your whole martyr thing you’ve got going on?”

            “Fine, if that’s how you feel, we’ll drop it.”

            “Good.”

            “Good.”

            “Now do you want to tell me why you haven’t gone home?” Draco asked.

            “I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

            “Yes, well now I’m awake and I’m ordering you to go home tonight and take care of my daughter. I expect you to bathe and go to sleep on time.”

            “Yes Mother,” Harry said snickering. He tried to say it in the tone Draco often took with Narcissa when Draco didn’t want to hear something.

            “I’m serious, Harry. And why aren’t you eating? You know you’re eating for two now, right?”

            “Yeah, but I ate lunch and you didn’t; I’m not even that hungry.”

            “Well humor me; get your dinner tray and feed my daughter.”

            Harry retrieved his dinner tray, eating with Draco in the waiting room. They stayed close by each other, but maintained at least an inch of separation at all times. Then Andy came out to announce that she was going home, since it was late.

            Harry and Draco went back into the room and Draco took a bath, while Harry and Narcissa took the three boys over to the nurse’s station, where they watched while Acacia gave the three boys baths. Scorpius was apparently in the worst need of a bath, since he had been allowed to sit there and suckle on Draco long after he was full quite a few times today and consequently had milk dribbled all over him.

            After Draco and the babies all had baths, Acacia piled all of the babies in the bed with Draco and pushed the bed up against the cribs. Harry and Narcissa went home for the night, so that Harry could fulfill his promise to Draco to take care of himself.

            Acacia was replaced by Nurse Davis and Narcissa was replaced by Lucius as the night shift began. Draco nursed the three babies and then put them down for bed in the two cribs. Then Nurse Davis came in and gave Draco his two potions and he fell right to sleep. Lucius, not having anything better to do with his entire family asleep, lay down in Harry’s old bed and went to sleep. He could’ve gone home, but he wasn’t comfortable leaving his son and grandsons asleep without protection in a strange place; thus he slept lightly with his wand in his grip by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Z  
> Author’s Note: Draco will be released next chapter!
> 
> This site had been experiencing glitches with formatting in posting new chapters for a week now, which has caused me some delay in posting chapters. I've decided to post this, despite the fact that I know the formatting is not being displayed properly. I hope they fix it soon.


	53. Chapter53

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, the formatting on this site is still not working correctly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

            Draco spent most of Thursday in the hospital sleeping and he was recovered enough Thursday night to be released. But beforehand the healers sat him and Harry down for a chat on what they needed to do once they got home to avoid Draco passing out again. Eating and drinking more, while nursing less were on the list, but so was maintaining constant physical separation, so that he didn’t transfer any of his magic to Harry.

            “Constant physical separation at all times means that the two of you need to sleep in separate beds and that you can’t have sex for the remainder of Harry’s pregnancy. I also recommend dressing in long sleeved robes to minimize the accidental touches that come with day to day activities and gloves would also help to that end. You may touch each other if there is a cloth barrier separating your skin,” Healer Richards said.

            “So if I cover myself up completely with cloth, I could hug him?” Harry asked.

            “Forget hugging, what about dry humping?” Draco asked.

            “Yes, you could hug if you’re very careful about it and make absolutely certain to cover up all skin, but you can’t kiss,” Healer Richards answered. “As for dry humping, the same applies, in that it’s okay as long as you don’t kiss and all skin is covered.”

            “Great,” Draco replied with a smirk, happy that his sex life wasn’t going to be as thoroughly decimated as he’d feared.

            “Now you’ve been doing well with nursing without the breast pump while you’ve been in here, but if you find you absolutely have to start using it again, keep track of the milk you pump and only pump enough to fill the number of bottles you need to currently feed your babies. That means if Sev goes back to bottles and he drinks four bottles a day, you can only pump four bottles of milk from your chest and no more,” Healer Richards said.

            “Yeah, okay,” Draco replied.

            “Have either of you considered going back to Hogwarts to finish your NEWTs? If one of you was away at school, you’d be less tempted to touch,” Healer Richards said.

            “No, I’ve been let into the Aurors without them,” Harry answered.

            “I was planning on doing my NEWTs from home, but I can’t go to Hogwarts with three babies to nurse; there’s no way I could manage all of that on my own,” Draco answered.

            “What about if you took just Scorp to Hogwarts and sent bottles of milk home for Sev and Teddy? Scorp is the only one who refuses to take a bottle and it wouldn’t be too difficult to care for one baby while at school, would it? Harry could stay home and take care of the other two while you’re away and then you wouldn’t have to work at maintaining the separation between you,” Healer Richards said.

            “No, I don’t want to be separated from my husband and two of my children,” Draco replied.

            “Alright, but I recommend you think about it. At the very least you need separate beds and ideally separate bedrooms,” Healer Richards said.

            “That’s fine; I can sleep in the spare bed in the nursery and Harry can have our bed. Everything will go back to normal, with me studying for NEWTs during the day and watching the babies at night. Harry can sleep at night and watch the babies during the day,” Draco insisted.

            “Now there is one more option I need to discuss with you, but it could potentially be very dangerous,” replied the healer. “There is a potion that you, Harry, could take that would prevent him from drawing magic off of Draco. It would eliminate the danger for him from contact, but it could also cause you to miscarry, because if your magic dipped too low, he wouldn’t be able to step in and transfer some. Of course such a transfer would likely be painful for him and possibly cause him to pass out, but it is possible that such a transfer could be necessary to avoid a miscarriage. With this potion, there would be no chance of an emergency transfer, which is why you two need to consider it very carefully if you choose to go that route.”

            “We’ll do it,” Harry announced automatically.

            “Harry, we need to think about it first. Your health and our daughter’s health could depend on this,” Draco implored. “I won’t put you two at risk.”

            “We won’t be at risk. I’ll stay at home and not do anything dangerous. I have enough magic for the two of us and as long as you’re not drawing magic from me, there won’t be a problem,” Harry retorted.

            “Will that happen?” Draco asked concerned. “If Harry takes this potion, will I start drawing from him again?”

            “Most likely no. If you also took the potion, it’d be a definite no,” the healer answered.

            “Then it’s settled; we’ll both take it,” Harry concluded.  
            “How long will a dose last?” Draco asked.

            “A week,” Healer Richards answered.

            “That seems reasonable. If something happens to indicate I’m not having an easy pregnancy, then we can stop taking it and resume transfer in a week,” Harry suggested.

            “Yes, but if there is a sudden unforewarned emergency the pregnancy could terminate before the potion wears off,” the healer replied.

            “I need to think about it more,” Draco said.

            “But Draco, this potion is just what we need. I’m not gonna have any difficulties, you’ll see. We should take it and then everything will go back to normal,” Harry urged.

            “You’re probably right, but this is a big decision and I need to sleep on it. Your health and the health of our unborn child are not to be taken lightly,” Draco cautioned and Harry acquiesced.

            With that settled, Healer Richards went over the list of symptoms that Draco needed to watch out for and implored Draco to come in again if any of the symptoms returned. Then Draco was made to eat one last dinner, reminded to take it easy while he recovered from the magical exhaustion, and finally released.

            Draco was very happy to be home and even agreed to take it easy. Instead of helping with the evening baths, he curled up on their bed with one of his history of magic books, letting the others do all of the work.

            Harry got Narcissa to help him with the nightly routine, but he took the three babies to Draco to nurse before bed. Scorp and Teddy were put on first and Harry held Sev while the baby waited for his turn.

            “You know, I should move into the third bedroom for now. It’s got your old furniture already set up in there,” Harry suggested.

            “Nonsense; I want to share a room with my husband, even if we can’t touch for months,” Draco replied.

            “But if it’s for your health, we should do it. We’re not using that bedroom until our daughter is born, so why can’t I move in there? It’ll only be until you agree that we should take the potion.”

            “We’re using it for storage. Have you been in there lately?”

            “No…but we can’t possibly have that much stuff to store.”

            “We do. Cradles, basinets, a bouncer, and several piles of clothes are all in there. Then there are all of the things we bought for when the twins are older; enough clothes and toys and nappies to last until they’re two. And then there’s all of the things we were given for Edward at the baby shower and haven’t used yet. Not to mention that the pile of clothes for when Scorp moves into the next size is all over the bed.”

            “Scorp’s clothes are getting tight; we need to switch him into the larger size already. And we’ll get one of those bags with the wizard space charms on them and move it all into one neat and tidy bag, which we’ll put in the closet.”

            “Even so, I don’t want to be separated from you. Even if we can’t touch and can’t sleep in the same bed, I want to share space with you. That’s why I told that healer that I won’t go to Hogwarts.”

            “I don’t want to be separated from you either, which is why I want to take the potion. It’s the only way we can possibly make it through the pregnancy, Draco.”

            “But it’s potentially dangerous for you and the baby, Harry.”

            “Bay-bayssss?” Sev asked, pointing to Teddy.

            “Yes Sev, Teddy is a baby, but Daddy has another baby in his tummy. You’re gonna have a little sister,” Harry said taking Sev’s little hand and placing it on his flat stomach.

            “Bay-bayssss,” Sev insisted with a hiss, pulling his hand away from Harry and pointing again at Teddy.

            “Sev’s too little to understand,” Draco said.

            “Yeah, it seems that way,” Harry replied with a sigh. “Draco, what are we gonna do if we can’t touch each other for the next nine months if we don’t take the potion?”

            “Well for starters, it should be closer to eight months. Our daughter was conceived two weeks ago tomorrow and they start counting two weeks before conception, because of witches and their bloody periods, so you’re already a month pregnant.”

            “Oh…well one month down at least…”

            “And we’ll get through the next eight months just like we’d planned. I’ll focus on my school work and you’ll focus on our children and taking care of our new baby. We’ll stay together, but just not touch.”

            “Yeah, but it’ll be so much better if we _can_ touch. What harm can it possibly do?”

            “Well for one, you’re not the type to lie in bed and take things easy. Suppose a Death Eater is on the rampage and you’re the only one who can stop him? You, having that egregious case of hero complex of yours, will rush out to save the day, putting our daughter at risk. Then it’ll be you lying there having a miscarriage and me left powerless to save you. How do you think my near miscarriage would’ve gone if you hadn’t been there to donate magic to me and stabilize me? Scorp would’ve died and I would’ve been lucky to keep Sev, that’s how,” Draco said, answering his own question, but making sure to leave Ron’s name out of it. As per their truce, he was not to mention the cause of his near miscarriage and he was determined to stick to that agreement, for Harry’s sake.

            “No, I won’t go after anymore bad guys. I’ll leave that to Ron and the Aurors. All of the really bad people have already been captured, so it won’t be a problem.”

            “Are you sure about that?”

            “Yes, I’m sure.”

            “You’ll save you and our daughter before you save the entire Wizarding World?”

            “Yes, I will, I promise. Besides, if you could get through a pregnancy with twins without my magic, I can get through a single pregnancy without yours.”

            “But I was on bed rest. I knew you wouldn’t be able to defeat the Dark Lord with me around and that it’d be too dangerous, so I hid myself away where I’d be safe and nothing bad could possibly happen to me. I don’t think you’re capable of doing the same,” Draco admitted. This was his hang-up when it came to using the potion.

            “I will do the same, Draco. I swear to Merlin I won’t go chasing after dark wizards nor do anything else dangerous. All I plan on doing is staying here and watching the boys. If I feel like getting out of the house, I’ll go to the Burrow or visit Hermione at Hogwarts. There is nothing that can possibly go wrong.”

            “Hogwarts hasn’t exactly proved safe before.”

            “Then I’ll arrange for Hermione to meet me.”

            “Alright, I’ll think about it, but I’m not going to agree to it today.”

            “Why not?”

            “Because we don’t know how your pregnancy is going to affect you yet. You haven’t shown any symptoms.”

            “Which is good. It means I’ll have an easy pregnancy.”

            “No, not at all. Morning sickness is linked to healthy pregnancies. Pregnancies without morning sickness are more high risk in terms of miscarriage potential or pre-term labor.”

            “Are you sure? I thought it was the other way around…”

            “I’m sure. I read several pregnancy books. How many have you read?”

            “I tried to read one…but I got busy and never finished,” Harry admitted. Plus, he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t read it and forgot it, because he hadn’t exactly maintained that information through the war.

            “Well trust me, it’s true. That’s why I want to wait. If in two weeks you’re puking all over the place with none of the negative signs, then we’ll start taking the potion. If you’re still symptomless, I want to wait until your checkup next month and see what the healer says.”

            “And if the pregnancy is healthy and I’m not puking next month, will you agree to take it?” Harry was more concerned with getting Draco to also agree to take the potion, because if it was only necessary for him to take it, he’d go behind Draco’s back and take it. But with Draco breast feeding, it’d put the pregnancy at risk for Harry to take it without Draco also taking it.

            “Yes,” Draco finally agreed. “But if at any time your pregnancy becomes high risk, I’m stopping.”

            “Deal.”

            “But what about that muggle gala for the NICU we said we’d go to? It’s next weekend.”

            “We don’t have to go,” Harry said.

            “I want to go.”

            “Then we’ll go and I’ll be careful. But do you think you’ll be up to it? I mean, shouldn’t you rest?”

            “It’s nine days away; I think I’ll be recuperated by then. I wanted to go and see the muggles who saved Scorp’s life. I want to see the new incubator they bought with the money we donated too.”

            “Alright, I would like to meet them,” Harry agreed.

            “Here, take Edward and give me Sev,” Draco said, since Edward was done nursing.

            Harry did as told and once the three boys were fed, they put them to bed. Then they took baths separately. Draco went to sleep in the nursery and Harry slept in their bedroom.

            It was hard, but they got through it. Harry bought the thinnest pair of gloves he could find and took to wearing long sleeved robes, even though it was still summer and the Manor was hot; he just made liberal use of cooling charms to compensate. Draco grew stronger and after a week he was back to his normal self, just without the breast pump on his shoulder and with spending a bit more time each day nursing all three babies. Meanwhile Harry grew sicker. There were several instances when Harry didn’t pay attention to how much of the anti-nausea tea he was drinking, forgot a dose or two, and wound up hugging the toilet. After the third time, Harry started drinking his tea religiously.

            The Saturday of the big gala arrived and the Malfoy family dressed in muggle clothes. Harry put on one of the new muggle dress shirts he’d been given for his birthday and lent one to Draco, who put the muggle shirt on over his paternity undershirt. Harry was about to put on a pair of trousers, but then Draco pulled out a pair of Harry’s new Malfoy jeans and said, “Put these on.”

            “Why, you can’t touch,” Harry protested. “Not until we start taking the potion. Did you want to start taking it five days early? I’ve certainly puked enough.”

            “No, but I can look and maybe later I’ll dry hump you; the healer said I could,” Draco replied with a smirk. Now that he was feeling better, he was a bit randy. It’d been almost a month since the last time they’d had sex, although the presence of three babies and his parents in the house still kept a pretty significant damper on his sex drive.

            Harry put on the jeans and then went to the nursery to help dress the boys in the set of matching outfits Luna had given them with the lions on the little summer suits. Then they pulled out the twin stroller with the two infant carseats on top and strapped Teddy and Scorp in; the carseats were to make the muggles think they had arrived in a car. Harry spelled the stroller to appear to have wheels like a muggle stroller. Draco carried a nappy bag and Sev, who rarely liked sitting still long enough to be strapped into a stroller. They were joined by Andy, Narcissa, Lucius, and Hermione, who were already dressed and waiting for them.

            The lot of them flooed over to the villa together. Narcissa, Lucius, and Draco had all been to the muggle hospital before, so the three of them apparated over. But Andy, Harry, and Hermione had all never been, so the three of them flooed with the babies to a nearby wizarding market and walked from there to the hospital. Andy and Hermione took turns carrying Sev, who was nearing twenty pounds and quite heavy, especially because the baby kept squirming, wanting to be put down.

            “Here, give him to me and I’ll carry him the rest of the way,” Harry offered.

            “No Harry, you’re pregnant; you shouldn’t be struggling with heavy loads. It’s not good for the baby,” Hermione replied.

            “She’s right you know,” Andy seconded. “Lifting heavy objects is a major cause of miscarriages.”

            “But I’m a guy; I can lift way more than Sev,” Harry protested, but continued to push the stroller.

            “Doesn’t matter; you shouldn’t be doing it, especially in the first few months,” Andy replied.

            Harry grumbled some more, but he didn’t want to have a miscarriage and sacrifice the time he’d already put into this pregnancy. Three weeks down, just thirty-six to go.

            The hospital was a few blocks away from the wizarding market, so it only took them half an hour to make the short walk, even with Sev causing problems. Then they were arriving at the hospital where Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco were waiting for them and led the way to the large conference room where the gala was being held. A large machine was on display and Draco took Harry and Hermione over to it.

            “Looks like this is the incubator they bought,” Draco said. “Scorp was in one like this, but his was a bit different.”

            “It’s wonderful,” Harry replied.

            “Truly amazing what can be done these days with a bit of science,” Hermione added.

            “Ah, if it isn’t Drake Malcolm and his twin babies; the guests of honor, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked, approaching them.

            “Yes. Dr. Leroy, this is my husband Harry and our friend Hermione,” Draco introduced.

            “You make married now, yes? Wonderful,” Dr. Leroy replied.

            “Yes,” Draco agreed.

            “This is baby Hyperion, yes? He makes growing quite a bit,” Dr. Leroy said, indicating Sev, who Hermione had passed to Draco.

            “Yes, but we changed his name to Sev. Hyperion is his middle name now,” Draco replied.

            “And then this little one must be Scorpius, yes? But where did this third baby come from?” Dr. Leroy asked, indicating Teddy, who had a hat firmly covering all of the baby’s hair, in case it changed color. They were hoping no one noticed the baby’s eyes changing colors either, but then it was harder to cover up the eyes.

            “My Aunt Andy’s grandson Edward. My aunt’s over there with my parents,” Draco said, pointing to where his aunt and parents were talking with Dr. Martin, who was the first doctor to treat Scorpius and the one to get Scorpius hooked up to the respirator.

            “Ah yes, I see. I make the best English, so all of the doctors and nurses asked me to thank you on their behalf for making the donation for the incubator. We honestly didn’t think you’d be able to make your bill, let alone a donation. We want you to know that thanks to you, we will be able to save many more babies every year. This incubator is more advanced than our old ones and it will make saving even smaller and more premature babies possible,” Dr. Leroy said.

            “You’re very welcome. We were just so grateful to you all for saving Scorp that we wanted to do something to repay you. We didn’t have access to our money last year, but as soon as we could we sent the payment in,” Draco replied.

            “Why didn’t you have access? It was your money, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked.

            “It was my money and I wasn’t eighteen yet. My parents are dead, so I inherited it on my birthday. I was also able to make an honest man out of Draco and we joined in a civil union,” Harry lied, telling the muggle what he’d want to hear and correcting Draco’s earlier mistake. Unlike the magical world, the muggle world didn’t allow same sex marriages.

            “Ah, very good. I must make conversation with the chief of staff. Excuse me, yes?” Dr. Leroy asked.

            “Yes,” Draco agreed.

            As soon as Dr. Leroy was gone, Hermione asked, “Draco, how do you know Dr. Leroy again?”

            “He was the one who examined me. I don’t speak French and most of the healers here don’t speak good English, so they asked Dr. Leroy to examine me. He’s the only one here who knows that I gave birth and that Harry is the dad. The rest think that someone else is the mother and that I’m the father,” Draco answered.

            “That’s strange; muggles normally check to make sure that the mother is a real person and that it’s someone who has actually given birth,” Hermione said.

            “I gave them the name of a real person, but none of that really mattered once Dr. Leroy figured out that I had given birth. He handled the muggles for me,” Draco replied.

            “Who did you tell them the babies’ mother was? Pansy Parkinson?” Harry asked.

            “No, as a matter of fact, I told them it was Hermione, so if the French healers treat you like the mother Hermione, then just go along with it,” Draco said.

            Hermione almost spit out the water she was sipping on in her surprise. “What? When were you going to tell me this?” she asked.

            “Relax; they don’t speak English. I had to tell them someone and you were perfect. You’re muggleborn with muggle parents and muggle neighbors they could question. Plus you were on the run, so I knew they wouldn’t be able to find you,” Draco replied.

            “But I wiped my parents’ memories and sent them to Australia,” Hermione protested.

            “I didn’t know that… oh well, it ended up not mattering,” Draco replied.

            “Oh, okay. I guess I’ll just have to be the mother then. But, um, just how do you explain how one of our children has black hair, when I have brown and you have blond?” Hermione asked.

            “My mother’s family all have black hair; sometimes these things skip a generation.”

            “Blond hair might, but black is dominant, so it can’t skip.”

            “Then maybe you cheated on me with Harry.”

            Dr. Leroy came over then with the muggles in charge of the hospital and they were thanked for the donation. There was dinner and dancing and rich old muggles donated more money to the NICU. When the night was finally over, Harry, Hermione, and Andy apparated back to the Villa, while Narcissa, Lucius, and Draco walked with the babies back to the wizarding market and flooed back to the Villa. From there Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius took the babies back to the Manor, while the three young adults stayed behind.

            “Well Hermione, just one more week and then you’re back to Hogwarts. What’s it feel like to be going back?” Harry asked.

            “Pretty surreal, but I’m definitely excited,” Hermione answered.

            “I wanted to ask you, Hermione, what you think about the safety of that potion Draco and I are supposed to start taking.” Harry knew exactly what his friend thought, because they’d been owling about it.

            “I’ve looked it up and other than the side effects the healer mentioned, it seems safe,” Hermione conceded. “I really must be going. Harry, I’ll stop by and see you whenever I can. Headmistress McGonagall said she’ll allow me to floo home on weekends. Take care of yourself and your babies,” Hermione said, giving first Harry and then Draco a hug, before flooing back to the Burrow.

            “Why did you try to bring your friend into our disagreement?” Draco asked.

            “Because I thought she’d take my side,” Harry replied.

            “Look, I don’t mind Hermione hanging out with us. I don’t mind being friendly with your friends, but don’t bring anyone into our marriage. This is between you and me and it’s gonna stay between us. If you want to talk to her about your side of things, okay, but don’t go putting her between us. Understand?”

            “Yeah, okay, I’m sorry.”

            “Good, now do you wanna go upstairs and have make up sex?”

            “We can’t…”

            “Make up dry humping then.”

            “Yeah.”

            Draco turned and went upstairs to the bedroom that they’d shared before they moved back to the Manor. He took his clothes off and lay down on the bed. Harry took his clothes off too and went to look in the dresser for something he could wear to block his skin from touching Draco’s skin, but he had forgotten that all of their clothes were at the Manor now. Harry ended up calling a house elf to bring him a set of long sleeved robes, which he put on. Then he put his gloves on and carefully climbed into bed with Draco.

            They had to be careful and couldn’t even kiss, but the passion was still there and they managed a release.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has there been enough drama in this story, or should I include a chapter when Harry’s magic suddenly dips too low and Draco can’t rectify it, because they’re both taking the potion?


	54. Chapter54

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting is still broke on this site. Perhaps if all of you would complain, the site administrators would start using the old, functioning story editor…

            It wasn’t long before the subject of Hogwarts came up again; it was only early September and Draco was just starting to prepare for his transfiguration and ancient runes NEWTs. Potions and history of magic were far easier subjects for him to study on his own, even if they were the more intensive of the courses, which meant that he found himself with absolutely no idea where to start and no study plan to fall back on for transfigurations and ancient runes. He considered owling Hermione and begging for help, confident that a well thought out study plan would allow him to move forward, but he also thought of the suggestion from Harry and his healer that he should return to Hogwarts to study this year.

            It was a lazy Sunday morning and they were enjoying the nice weather outside on the lawn in the garden when Draco said, “Harry, I’m considering going back to Hogwarts this year.”

            “What? I thought you were diametrically opposed to that,” Harry replied, turning his gaze abruptly from Sev crawling about on the grass and quickly growing closer to the rose bushes, to look at Draco.

            “I’m not going there to live; I refuse to be separated from my family. And I won’t take meals there either. I’m talking two hours a day four days a week, just so I can get some direction with my transfiguration and ancient runes studies.”

            A loud crack was heard and then Mipsy’s shrill voice rang out, “Master Severus Malfoy, sir, must not be touching the rose bushes, sir.”

            “Elf!” Sev exclaimed, sitting back on his bum and reaching out to grab a long ear.

            “Elf!” Scorp exclaimed, clapping his hands excitedly and then reaching out for the elf. Scorp was sitting in the middle of the blanket, right where they had left him.

            “Eeee!” Teddy squealed happily. He too was sitting up and had cottoned on to the elf mania of the twins.

            “Yes Masters Severus and Scorpius, sirs? How may Mipsy be serving Masters Severus and Scorpius, sirs?”

            “Elf,” Scorp repeated, while Sev was already busy pulling himself up to standing using Mipsy for support.

            “How may Mipsy be helping Master Scorpius, sir?”

            “Mipsy, just bring Sev back onto the blanket,” Draco ordered. Mipsy did as instructed, before vanishing with another crack. Draco turned back to Harry, who seemed deep in thought. “So what do you think, Harry?”

            “It’s no different from what you’ve been doing. Sure you won’t be in the house if something happens, but I’ll have your mum and Andy for help.”

            “So it’s alright with you if I go?”

            “Yeah, it’s fine.”

            Draco leaned in and captured Harry’s lips in a searing kiss. Harry’s pregnancy was still going well, so they’d both started taking the potion which allowed them physical contact without burning Draco.

            When they broke apart, Harry said, “I’d shag you right now if your mum would watch the kids.” He hadn’t appreciated how all of the extra hormones from the pregnancy running through his system would make him so horny all of the time.

            They were quiet for a few minutes while they each thought about their physical desires and then squelched those desires by looking at their children. Sev was once again on the grass, crawling towards the flowerbeds, but the irises this time. Irises couldn’t hurt the baby, so they let the baby explore.

            “Harry, I’m not going to dump all of the childcare off on you either. You know that if you want you can go visit your friends on weekends, right? I know Hermione’s at school, but you could try owling Longbottom or Lovegood.” Draco knew Harry hadn’t gone anywhere since dinner at the Weasleys the day before Hermione boarded the Hogwarts express.

            “But weekends are the only days I get to spend with you,” Harry said, while thinking about how much he missed Ron. Unfortunately Ron was always busy working, either as an Auror or with helping George at the joke shop.

            “We still spend meal times and after supper together every weekday. And I’m not saying you need to spend the whole day out, but it would be good if you had contact with your friends. If you’re stuck in the house all day without any intelligent conversation, you go a bit mad after a while; trust me, I know from personal experience.” Not that he’d ever been completely without adult conversation, because his parents, grandmother, and Professor Snape had all visited with him.

            “Yeah, maybe.”

            “If you don’t make your own arrangements, I will be forced to invite people over to hang out with you. You can either owl Lovegood and Longbottom yourself or I can owl Pansy and Milli to come hang out with you.”

            “Alright, I’ll owl Ron right away and beg him to spend some time with me.”

            “I thought you liked Lovegood and Longbottom? Or is it Finnigan and Thomas you prefer?” Not that Finnigan and Thomas were any better company, with Thomas being muggleborn and Finnigan being explosion prone.

            “No, it’s Luna and Neville I prefer out of that group. Why?”

            “Well it’s just that I was under the impression that you were very close with both of them, but the only times you’ve seen them since the war was at your birthday party, our baby shower, and at funerals. You need to work harder to keep your friendships up. I know everyone in the wizarding world wants to be your friend, but sometimes it’s easier to keep the friends who were your friends before the fame.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll owl them.”

            “And make plans to meet with them in person too. You don’t need to be gone every weekend, but you can definitely spent two hours a month on catching up with them.”

            “Alright, fine, I’ll do it during naptime.” Then Harry realized that Draco spent even less time with his friends than Harry did. There was Crabbe’s funeral, the baby shower, Draco’s birthday party, Harry’s birthday party, and that was it. Draco never had his friends over to the Manor and he never left the Manor. “What about you? You never see any of your friends either.”

            “Fine, I’ll start inviting them over.”

            “Good.”

            That settled it and Draco got up to retrieve Sev from where the baby was trampling the irises. They played on the lawn a while longer and then went inside to feed the babies and have lunch. After that they went to the nursery and took turns preventing Sev from making horrible messes everywhere. Sev was now very proficient at pulling himself along using the walls and furniture for support, which allowed him to reach new things, like the crib sheets that he had learned were fun to pull off. The toy box could always be emptied for endless amounts of enjoyment and Sev had recently learned he could get into the cabinet below the changing table, which held all kinds of things he could get into.

            Then it was naptime and three babies were laid down in their cribs, while Draco napped in the bedroom. Finally with a bit of quiet time to himself, Harry went to the study and composed two owls, one to Luna and the other to Neville. Then he went back out to the sitting room and firecalled the Weasleys.

            Molly appeared first in the Weasley living room, but she quickly called Ron. It was several moments during which Harry could hear the sound of footsteps on stairs, before Ron appeared and said, “Hiya Harry. What’s up?”

            “Draco reminded me that I need to spend more time with my friends. I know you’ve been busy lately, but maybe we could hang out sometime,” Harry replied.

            “I’m free now. Why don’t you come on through?”

            Harry agreed and arranged for Cissy to keep an eye on the babies. Teddy was doing better with just taking the one nap and not waking up too soon, but he didn’t want to risk Draco being woken up.

            Draco was still up in the night with the babies, which meant that he often took naps or he was cranky. Harry was also up during the nights, but only to pee and occasionally puke. That made Harry highly jealous of Draco, who still had the urine vanishing charm functioning. Harry had an appointment coming up with a healer to check on the progress of his pregnancy and he was absolutely going to insist upon having that charm put in place on his bladder.

            Harry apparated over to the Burrow where Ron was waiting for him in the living room.

            “I’m in the middle of cleaning my room. Would you mind coming upstairs while I work? With Hermione gone, Mum expects me to clean it meself.”

            “Yeah, sure,” Harry replied and then followed Ron upstairs.

            Ron’s room was still the same with bright orange walls and slanted roof, only the bed was much larger and now took up most of the room. Ron had already made the bed, so Harry sat down on it while Ron sorted through the giant mound of things that was mostly composed of trash and clothes, both clean and dirty, but also contained plenty of other things he had accumulated.

            “Does your mum know about this bed?” Harry asked.

            “Yeah, well she makes Hermione sleep in Ginny’s room, but she pretends not to notice when Hermione sneaks in here in the night.” Ron shrugged and sniffed a sock, jerking it away from his nose when the smell told him it was dirty.

            “That’s surprising,” Harry replied. He couldn’t image Mrs. Weasley turning a blind eye to adolescent shenanigans in her home. “Maybe Hermione’s just really good at the old notice-me-not.

            “Probably. What’s really surprising is that Draco suggested you spend time with me. Now that’s shocking.” Ron had moved onto hanging up a clean set of robes in his closet. He was under the impression that Draco hated him and was keeping Harry away from him; why else would Harry stop by so infrequently when Harry didn’t have anything going on but watching a few babies?

            “Yeah, well he said I’d been cooped up in the house too long and I needed to get out and see my friends at least once a month. I went to that muggle hospital event three weeks ago, but I haven’t felt like going anywhere lately; I guess I’m worried that something might happen to the baby if I do.” Harry’s hand drifted down to cup his stomach, which was slightly more substantial than it had been, but was probably only noticeable to him.

            “You’re really going through with this having another one thing?” Ron asked. He’d seen Harry several times since finding out about the pregnancy, but this was the first time he’d been alone with Harry. He knew better than to mention anything negative about a pregnancy in front of witches, so he’d kept his disapproval to himself.

            “Yeah, I am.”

            “I would’ve thought three kids with Draco would be enough.”

            “We certainly have enough boys, but we want a little girl.”

            “Yeah, but you don’t have to have her with Draco. You could still get a divorce, marry a nice bloke, and then have a daughter.”

            “I _am_ married to a nice bloke and I’m not gonna terminate this pregnancy.”

            “You know he lies to you whenever it suits him.”

            “I haven’t caught him in any lies.”

            “That you’ll admit to.”

            “Can we just drop this? I love Draco and I plan on living the rest of my life with him.”

            “Alright, but if you do decide to leave him, know that I’ll be here for you. Mum would absolutely love it if you moved in with those three babies. Ginny would too and you could have Fred and George’s old room.”

            “Ron, I’m not getting a divorce and even if I was, I wouldn’t take the babies away from Draco.”

            “No way; you can’t possibly want to leave the kids there with him! They’ll grow up to be just as slippery.”

            “I promised him when he was pregnant that I wouldn’t take the twins away from him and I mean to stand by that promise. There’s nothing wrong with Draco’s parenting.”

            “For now, when the babies are too little to indoctrinate. By the time they’re off to Hogwarts, he’ll have ‘em all spouting the pureblood racism that his parents taught him.”

            “That’s not gonna happen. I told you he never really believed the nonsense he used to spout. Now I thought we were gonna drop this. You signed that contract.”

            “Alright, fine. What do you want to talk about instead?”

            There was a long discussion then about Quidditch, before Ron asked, “Hey Harry? What are you doing with Grimmauld Place now days?”

            “Storing house elves mostly. We go there on dates sometimes.”

            “Do you think I could move in there? I’d only take up one room and I could pay you rent if you’d like.”

            “I’d have to ask Draco; it belongs to both of us now.”

            “You put up your house in the marriage contract?”

            “He put up the Manor in our marriage contract and I put up Grimmauld Place. Obviously the Manor is the better property.”

            “Yeah, it is. But still, I’d really like to move out of here. I don’t fancy living with my parents forever and I don’t want to waste money renting a place. Hermione said that if I save up my Auror money this year and we add in the Auror money we both received for helping you kill Voldemort, then we’ll have enough to buy a small house somewhere.”

            “I’ll ask, but I wouldn’t count on Draco saying yes.”

            “Thanks mate.” Ron didn’t know if discussion of Bellatrix’s funeral were off limits or not, but he couldn’t help but ask Harry about something that had been bothering him. “Hey, did you ever talk to Narcissa and Lucius about Bellatrix’s funeral? If you could get the list of attendees, that’d really help us out over at headquarters, mate.”

            “No, I forgot. Draco said he didn’t know and that his father wasn’t there, but he didn’t know if Narcissa had gone.”

            “Well if you get a chance, mate, find out who all was there and owl me the list.”

            “Yeah, alright, I’ll ask. I have to use the bathroom,” Harry said, getting up from the bed.

            Harry went down the stairs to the bathroom and then came back up when he was done. While Harry was gone, a beam of sunlight broke through the clouds and shone through Ron’s small bedroom window. When Harry sat back down on Ron’s bed, the sunlight gleamed off of the snake bracelet Harry wore. Ron had seen it on Harry ever since Harry’s birthday, but he’d never realized that there was anything special about it before. He had thought Draco had given Harry a snake bracelet to mark Draco’s claim on Harry, but now he’d just been through the course on recognizing blood magic in Auror training.

            “Does your bracelet have blood magic on it?” Ron asked.

            Harry looked down at his bracelet and spun it around his wrist with a finger. “Yeah, Draco said it’s a family heirloom that recognizes Malfoy blood.”

            “Blood magic is dark magic; it’s illegal.”

            “Draco said this is benign blood magic. It’ll only hurt you if you try to steal it.”

            “He’s turning you dark one gift at a time.”

            “Why do you always think the worst of Draco? I’ll have you know it belonged to his dead grandmother and before she died, she told him to give it to whoever he married.”

            “Because the worst is normally the truth with him. I can’t believe he has you wearing a cursed bracelet and that doesn’t even bother you. We should destroy it right now.”

            “I’m not destroying it; I like the way it makes me feel.”

            “And how’s that?”

            “Like I belong to our family.”

            Ron was well aware of the fact that Harry was an orphan and had only had him, Hermione, and the Malfoys for family, but Harry seemed to be overly attached to the Malfoy family. “This reminds me of that story with the cursed ring that the hobbits grew addicted to and refused to take off and destroy, even though it was corrupting them.”

            “You’ve read The Lord of the Ring?” Harry asked surprised.

            “No, Hermione takes me to the movies.”

            “Oh.”

            “Well the point is your bracelet is like the ring, because it’s corrupting you and making you feel good while it’s doing it.”

            “Lay off my bracelet; there’s nothing wrong with it and if you can’t accept my husband and the gifts he gives me, then I don’t see how we can continue to be friends. I can’t believe you’re being such an arse about Draco when he was the one who suggested I spend more time with you. He doesn’t say anything negative about you and I can’t understand why you can’t do the same.”

            “Fine, I’ll lay off of it, but will you at least get an Auror to look at that bracelet?”

            “No Ron. It’s fine and I’m going home,” Harry said, officially having enough of Ron for the day. This was the first time he’d been alone with Ron in Merlin knows how long and Ron turned into a complete arse without someone there to keep Ron in check. He wouldn’t make the mistake of visiting Ron alone again; that was for sure.

            Harry disapparated back to the Manor, where Draco and the babies were still asleep and Narcissa was sitting in the sitting room, sorting through photos of the babies to put in each of the three baby books they were working on. Harry sat down on the settee opposite.

            “Cissy, can I ask you something?” Harry asked.

            “Sure Harry,” Cissy replied, looking up from the stack of photos.

            “Did you go to Bellatrix’s funeral?” Harry asked.

            “I did, but Lucius and Draco did not,” Narcissa said, lying about Lucius’ attendance. Draco had come to her and Lucius several weeks ago with news of Harry finding out about the funeral. They had long since gotten their stories straight, only she’d been expecting Harry to come to her to ask questions long ago.

            “Can you give me a list of which Death Eaters were in attendance?”

            “Sorry Harry, but none of the real Death Eater players showed up. From what I’ve read in the papers ,almost all of them were captured or killed. I haven’t heard any mention of any of them still being alive and in hiding.”

            “But Flint was there.”

            “Flint was a baby Death Eater. He’s a relative and to my knowledge he didn’t do anything other than boost the Dark Lords numbers. Lucius said the Death Eaters didn’t trust Flint with any serious tasks.”

            “Were there other baby Death Eaters there? Can you give me their names?”

            “No, I will not divulge the names. Dark Mark or not, if they were adolescents who made a mistake and never saw any real battle nor committed murder, I will not turn them over to the Aurors. We need to forgive the children and rehabilitate them into society or there will be backlash that will cause another Dark Lord to rise up.

            “Yeah, alright. But if any of these baby Death Eaters have trouble adjusting and start committing more crimes, can you turn them over to me?”

            “Yes, that seems agreeable.”

            With that settled, they went back to their task of updating the baby books and sorting through photos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was unanimous: everyone voted for Harry to have a drama free pregnancy, so I will do my best to write one :D  
> Ron was being an arse again, in violation of his truce with Draco, but only just. Harry’s get a bit sick of Ron, so I think he’d visit Neville next instead and he has a healer appointment coming up.


	55. Chapter55

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each chapter I post I can’t help but hope that the chapter editor is fixed, but yet again the formatting is broken :(

            In mid-September Harry went to visit Neville. Since he was upset with Ron and with Hermione, Ginny, and Luna all back at Hogwarts, Neville was the only friend left to visit. Maybe he could’ve visited George, but George was keeping busy with the joke shop these days and he didn’t want to get mobbed by showing his face in Diagon Alley.

            Neville had built a greenhouse on his grandmother’s property and was working on getting it established with magical plants. Harry helped water and then weed and while they worked, they talked. Neville relayed a very boring account of his time since the war, which had consisted mostly of visiting with Ginny and Luna, going to old people parties with his gran, dating Hannah Abbott, and working on this greenhouse. Harry told Neville about his sons and all of the things the babies did, from Sev making messes all over, to Scorp saying a new word, to Teddy getting up on all fours, like he was planning on crawling after Sev, but just hadn’t figured out how to do it yet.

            The visit wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as Harry’s time with Ron used to be. But then Ron hadn’t been as much fun ever since Harry had started dating Draco, because Ron still wouldn’t accept that he was happy with Draco. Sure Ron had sent an owl apologizing for his behavior during Harry’s recent visit to the Burrow, but it was Ron’s typical half-arsed apology that reeked of Hermione. Obviously Ron had told Hermione what had happened and Hermione had instructed Ron to apologize and on what to put in the letter. Harry was growing sick of forgiving Ron when Ron didn’t ever seem to learn from his mistakes, so he hadn’t replied to Ron’s owl. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, but he felt like holding a grudge.

            Then Harry had managed to turn the tides on Draco, getting him to focus more on his own friends than on Harry’s lack of friends. That discussion had triggered the arrival of a different one of Draco’s friends every weekend. They never stayed more than a few hours, but every Saturday and Sunday since Harry’s comment, another friend came over.

            So far Harry had met Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Gregory Goyle. Theo Nott turned out to be a quiet bookworm, who reminded Harry of a stuck up male version of Hermione. Being around Pansy Parkinson was like nails on a chalkboard, because Harry couldn’t stand her bloody sense of entitlement and obvious pureblood prejudices. Millicent Bulstrode was more tolerable, but rather boring, because all she did was gossip. Meeting Gregory Goyle was very awkward at first because of the whole room of hidden things debacle and nearly dying thing, and then later it was awkward because it was obvious that Goyle didn’t have two brain cells to rub together and was just as stupid as they said.

            Blaise Zabini was the only one of Draco’s friends so far that Harry legitimately liked. Zabini was intelligent and witty, but also a fun person to be around. Zabini had Harry and Draco playing wizard chess and laughing at his funny stories. Most of the stories were about Zabini’s mum and her many late husbands, but there were also stories about Draco and the other Slytherins and all of the things they had gotten up to both in school and before Hogwarts. He thought he might grow to like Zabini and since Draco had made the effort of befriending Hermione for him, he was going to make the effort to befriend one of Draco’s friends.

            The Monday after Zabini’s second visit to the Manor was Harry’s appointment with a healer at St. Mungo’s. They scheduled the appointment for Mondays, because it was the one day during the week when Draco didn’t floo to Hogwarts for a class. Tuesday and Thursday mornings he had transfigurations and Wednesday and Friday mornings was ancient runes. Draco was only gone two hours each morning, but he liked to do the homework and assignments he’d just been given while the material was still fresh in his mind.

            Harry was looking forward to seeing how the unborn baby was doing; he was over two months pregnant now and eager to get his healer to perform the urine vanishing charm on him, so he could stop waking up three times a night, every night, just to go to the bathroom.

            Narcissa and Andy were watching the babies while Harry and Draco apparated to St. Mungo’s. Healer Stevens started off doing all of the routine diagnostic spells Narcissa and Professor Snape used to perform on Draco. Draco had seen these spells so many times now he recognized some of the results and was able to determine that everything was likely fine before the healer told them his findings.

            “Everything looks good. I could check the sex of the baby now if you’d like to confirm that the Girls Only potion worked,” Healer Stevens said.

            “Yes please and can you also make sure it’s not twins again,” Draco answered. He definitely preferred just one baby, but if it was two he wanted to know as soon as possible.

            “Alright,” Healer Stevens answered, before performing the spell to determine how many embryos Harry was impregnated with.

            The words, “One Embryo,” appeared above Harry’s stomach and both Harry and Draco let out sighs of relief. Then the healer cast the sex determining spell and the word, “Girl,” appeared over Harry’s stomach.

            “Looks like just one little girl,” Healer Stevens announced.

            “That’s wonderful news,” Harry replied.

            After that, Healer Stevens went over all of the pregnancy things they already knew, such as eating healthy, eliminating stress, and not lifting too much or getting hit with unforgivable curses; definitely no battling dark wizards either.

            “Alright, that’s everything. I want to see you back here every month, Harry,” Healer Stevens concluded.

            “Wait, I want you to perform the urine vanishing charm on me, like Draco has on him,” Harry said.

            The healer shot that request down flat, explaining that the spell was only used in hospital when patients can’t get out of bed, for the same reason the excrement vanishing charm was only performed on Peverell wizards. Urine is an indicator of poor health, such as dehydration, kidney failure, and internal bleeding. Draco only had it done because he was on bed rest for a large part of his pregnancy and physically couldn’t get up to go to the bathroom. And the fact that the charm was still in place masked his dehydration before he wound up in hospital. If his urine hadn’t vanished automatically, he might have noticed there was too little of it and discovered the dehydration before he passed out. Harry was healthy and didn’t need it, so no healer would perform it on him.

            Then Draco remembered the vitamins the muggles had given him and decided to ask the healer if he knew anything about taking vitamins when pregnant or breast feeding.

            “Sorry, I haven’t heard of these vitamins. Are you sure they’re safe?” Healer Stevens asked.

            “Yes, quite sure. Professor Snape tested them and they make me feel better. Here, why don’t I give you some and you can test them to make sure they’re safe?” Draco asked pulling out bottles of multivitamin, calcium, and iron from his robes pocket and handing them to Healer Stevens. Getting a real healer to test the vitamins was a critical step in the plan for introducing vitamins to the wizarding world. Once the healer proved they were safe, Draco would announce that Harry was taking them for pregnancy and then witches and Peverell wizards everywhere would be buying the Malfoy imported muggle pills.

            “Alright, but I wouldn’t advise taking them before I get the results back,” Healer Stevens replied, taking the pills.

            The appointment over, they then apparated back to the Manor, where they shared their good news with the family.

            “That’s wonderful. Have you two thought of any names?” Narcissa asked.

            Draco looked at Harry and remembered their disagreement on the subject back when they were considering what to name Teddy. “No, we haven’t decided yet,” Draco answered.

            “Actually Draco, I was thinking of naming her Lilac; Lila for short. Do you like it?” Harry asked Draco. Lilac was a perfect compromise name, because it was a flower name and they both enjoyed lilacs. To Harry, the flower had become a symbol of their love and what more appropriate flower name was there to name a baby than the one which symbolized their love? This baby had even been conceived the day Neville had given Harry that lilac bush.

            “I love it. When did you come up with it?” Draco asked.

            “Back in August when I had the elves plant that lilac bush Neville gave me. She just seems like a Lilac.”

            “Lilac Malfoy. Now we just need a middle name,” Draco replied. “Have you thought about middle names?”

            “No, I figured that you’d want some constellation name.”

            “I do and I know you weren’t thrilled about any of the celestial names I suggested before, so while we were in Hawaii I acquired a book on Hawaiian constellations. I was thinking ‘A‘a, which means brightest star or Aikikauelono, which means the small booby bird of Lono.”

            “The first one is all vowels and the second one is a mouthful. What made you like them?”

            “The second one can be shortened to Aiki and they both are Hawaiian names for Sirius. I won’t name a baby directly after your godfather, but I’d do ‘A’a or Aiki.”

            Harry leaned in and shared a kiss with Draco then. He still didn’t love the names, but he loved the effort Draco had gone to in order to please him.

            “I’ll take that as you like the names. Which one do you prefer?”

            “Aiki. Lilac Aiki Malfoy,” Harry replied, trying out the name. It was alright, he supposed. Mostly what he liked about it was the meaning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think of the name? It’s not set in stone, especially the middle name, which I don’t like at all.  
> Up next Lucius will come under suspicion from the Ministry…


	56. Chapter56

            In early October Draco decided to broach what he feared would be a difficult topic. “Harry, what do you want to do for Halloween? I was thinking we could hold a séance at the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow where your parents are buried and take the boys. And we’ve been invited to a feast at my relatives the day after.” Really it was Samhain, but from his six years at Hogwarts he knew the muggles, and by extension Harry, had renamed it Halloween and he was making an effort for Harry.

            “Really? You’d want to hold a séance for Halloween?” Harry asked surprised.

            “Yes, it _is_ the day of the dead and the day your parents were murdered. What better way to honor them than to hold a séance?” According to the marriage contract, they were to spend Samhain with Draco’s relatives, but he had no plans of mentioning the marriage contract if it could be avoided. Mother always said that a marriage ruled by contract was a marriage in trouble.

            “You know, I’ve already talked to my parents’ spirits before, right?”

            “No… how in Merlin’s name did you manage that?”

            Harry told Draco then about seeing his parents’ spirits in fourth year and during the final battle.

            “I didn’t know you actually used the resurrection stone! It worked just as in the story then?”

            “Yes, exactly like the story,” Harry confirmed.

            “Wow,” Draco replied and then there was a pause as Draco thought about that information. “Well what did you want to do for Halloween?”

            “I was thinking we could dress the boys up in cute costumes and take them trick-or-treating.”

            “What’s trigger treating? Some muggle thing?”

            “Yeah. Muggle kids dress up and go door to door to collect candy on Halloween.”

            There was more discussion on the subject, but in the end they both agreed to throw a Halloween party, hold a séance and attend the feast with Draco’s relatives. Draco didn’t want to give the babies candy and Harry agreed that they could substitute the candy for a less sugary treat. Draco was unfamiliar with the concept of a Halloween costume, but Harry filled him in. They took their request to Madam Malkin’s, who promised to have them ready in time.

            In the days that followed, Harry sent out invitations to all of their closest friends, except Ron. He wanted to invite Ron, even though his friend had been a total prat last time they were together, but the babies would be at this party, so that wasn’t possible. Instead he sent Ron an owl explaining that. Ron sent back an owl saying it didn’t matter, because all Aurors who weren’t married and didn’t have kids had to be on duty on Halloween, so Ron couldn’t have gone anyway. It relieved Harry to know that he didn’t have to feel bad about excluding Ron.

            Harry got permission from Andy to throw the party out on her lawn. Then he paid George a visit to get the wizard to help with planning the entertainment. George insisted on inviting Angelina and Lee, but agreed to take care of most of the night’s entertainment.

            While Harry was working on the party, Draco was working on the séance. The plan was to hold a small séance the morning after Halloween at the graveyard where Harry’s parents were buried. This was still one of the most holy days of the year and Draco meant his children to celebrate it properly. That meant a séance where they worshipped the dead followed by the typical Samhain feast with family. The Rosiers always invited them every year.

            Of course, Draco couldn’t spend all of his time working on the séance, because he still had his NEWTs. Harry too was kept busy most of the time taking care of the three babies, but he managed to have an hour or two free almost every day.

            And as always, life plowed on. Andy sold Tonks and Remus’ fire damaged house in early October. Scorpius had another healer appointment, in which Healer Pritchard confirmed that the muscle strengthening potion still was not damaging the baby’s liver and that there was a very slight improvement in the strength of the left leg. That meant that Harry and Draco were now to increase the leg exercises to ten reps, three times a day.

            Harry too had another healer appointment in October; He and the unborn baby were doing fine and Healer Stevens approved muggle vitamins for use in pregnant people. Lucius had the vitamins ready to hit the wizarding shelves and just needed a well-placed article with product endorsements from Harry, Draco, and a healer. So while they were at the appointment, Draco asked Healer Stevens if the healer would publically proclaim the vitamins to be safe. Healer Stevens agreed. It took less than a week before the article came out on the front page of the Prophet, because Harry and Draco Malfoy were still hot topics and this was the first the news media was hearing of Harry’s pregnancy. There had been rumors and speculation in the papers, but they were all about Draco being pregnant again and no one had guessed that it was Harry who was pregnant. Once the paper hit the stands, the vitamins started flying off the shelves and Lucius had a time of it trying to import enough of them; every witch and wizard under the sun wanted to try the muggle pills endorsed by the Savior.

            The papers were still going strong in their speculations regarding Harry’s pregnancy when he got an owl from Auror Robards during breakfast. He pushed aside his Prophet article insisting that the pregnancy had been accidental and his Quibbler article insisting that the pregnancy was the result of a wackspurt infestation in Harry’s brain which physically prevented him from taking contraceptive potion, unfurled the scroll, and sent the delivering owl on its way. The message was simple enough: Auror Robards wanted to see him.

            “What is it dear? It isn’t another bit of fan mail the elves accidentally let through, is it?” Narcissa asked.

            “No, it’s from Auror Robards; he wants to see me.”

            “Well go ahead; Cissy and I can watch the children today,” Andy said.

            “What does he want?” Draco asked.

            “Don’t know.”

            “Well while you’re there, do try to explain to him that you’re on paternity leave. You get a full year off with pay, so I don’t see why he’s bothering you all the time,” Draco said.

            “He hasn’t asked me to come in since they captured Flint and that was months ago,” Harry retorted.

            Draco wanted to say that that was his point exactly, but he didn’t think Harry would receive that comment too well, so he kept it to himself. He would never have had to deal with Harry finding out about his aunt’s funeral if it wasn’t for Auror Robards calling Harry into work when Harry was supposed to be taking some much needed time off.

            They finished breakfast and Draco went off to Hogwarts, Narcissa and Andy took the babies upstairs to the nursery, and Harry apparated to the Auror department at the Ministry.

            Auror Robards was speaking with a pair of his subordinate Aurors at their desks when Harry came in. He looked up at the sound of the crack and said, “Ah Harry! I’m glad you could make it so quickly!” Auror Robards ushered Harry into his office and closed the door behind them.

            “What did you want to see me about?” Harry asked.

            “We’ve been given information that Lucius Malfoy is engaged in illegal potions rings and I wanted to come to you with this information first.”

            “I can assure you that he’s not brewing anything at the Manor. I haven’t seen him brew anything ever; Draco’s the brewer in the family.”

            “The allegations aren’t that he’s brewing or selling it, but acting as the middle man. That’s what most of his business is: acting as the middle man between the manufacturer and the shops where the goods are sold, so it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch that he might also be dealing with illegal potions. We have reason to believe that certain dark potion ingredients were in his possession in the past and he might even be selling dark ingredients to the brewers.”

            “Sir, Draco took everything dark away from Lucius. He promised me that he took everything dangerous out of the Manor while Lucius was in Azkaban. It’s all hidden away and locked up or else destroyed.”

            “That’s good to hear. Never the less, I’ve a Death Eater claiming that Lucius is into illegal potions and my Aurors can’t even come close to being able to explain where the huge influx of galleons to Lucius’ vaults in recent months has come from. Granted he has several new business ventures and anything with your last name on it is hot right now, but there’s still a ginormous disconnect between how much the businesses we know about are making and how much is being deposited in his account every month. It’s certainly possible that we’re not aware of all of his legal business ventures, but with this allegation, I assume you can see why we need to look into it.”

            “Yeah. I was really hoping Lucius had turned over a new leaf, because he’s been so nice lately and I haven’t seen him doing anything wrong…”

            “And there is still a chance he has. The next step typically is an audit. My Aurors have already forced the information regarding his vaults out of the goblins and now we would typically call Mr. Malfoy in here to account for the funds seen in the account. But since you’re one of my Aurors and he’s related to you, I thought I could do your family a bit of a favor. I know you would never let corruption go on under your nose or in your house, so if Lucius will make an account to you of where all of the money is coming from and you believe it, then I’ll consider the issue closed. If he can’t, then I’ll have a more experienced Auror take the case and start building evidence against him. You will of course be paid for your time.”

            Harry agreed and Robards sent Harry off to talk to an Auror named Bell, who turned out to be Katie Bell’s uncle. Auror Bell showed Harry the auditing forms they filled out and the basic arithmetic charms to calculate the totals and went over the process of conducting an audit. It was all about balancing how much money came in versus how much money goes out. When the lesson was over, Harry took the audit form and apparated back to the Manor.

            By the time Harry returned, Narcissa and Andy were already back in the dining room, feeding the boys mashed squash for lunch. He relayed the news of the illegal potion suspicion Lucius was under and the audit he was supposed to conduct.

            “Harry, I can assure you that Lucius isn’t currently involved in anything illegal, including illegal potions. I don’t think he’s ever been in illegal potions,” Narcissa said.

            “I hope you’re right, but I have to check or someone else will,” Harry replied.

            “Well at least it’s someone within the family doing it. But mark my words, you’ll see that Lucius is on the up and up these days,” Narcissa replied.

            Draco came down from the study not long after that and Harry had to repeat his explanation for his husband. Draco echoed his mother’s sentiment in insisting that Lucius was not now nor had he ever been involved in acting as a go between for illegal potions.

            Harry had to repeat the news a third time that night at dinner when Lucius came home.

            “Harry, by the time your audit is done, you will see that this is just another attempt by the Ministry to frame me for something I didn’t do. I have no problem sitting down with you and doing this audit, but when I come away squeaky clean, I’d appreciate it if you’d remember it next time I’m accused of something. This type of thing has been occurring regularly since my involvement with the last war. Not that I’m innocent on all accounts, but besides being a Death Eater and my involvement with the Dark Lord, I have committed very few crimes and absolutely none since my son wrote me that letter last summer,” Lucius said. He wasn’t counting bribery of public officials, because that was a Malfoy custom, not a crime.

            And so after dinner Draco took care of the boys and Harry and Lucius flooed over to Mr. Shafiq’s office to begin the auditing process. Harry already had the records of Lucius’ vault activity since the end of the war and Mr. Shafiq began the process of producing documentation. A lot of money came in lump sums in May and were two years’ worth of profits from Lucius’ various businesses that continued on in his absence.

            Harry hadn’t appreciated just how many businesses Lucius had going on before; so many that the Malfoys employed Mr. Shafiq full time as an attorney mostly to oversee the regular legal issues involved with said businesses. There were sales of wine and cheese from the Villa and wheat, vegetables, and various potions ingredients from the Manor. Then there were the investments that paid yearly dividends, such as the Daily Prophet, the Nimbus Broom Company, Puddlemere United Quidditch team, an invisibility cloak manufacturing company, and a dragon reserve up in Wales. There was rent collected from two Malfoy properties that weren’t currently used by the family.

            And then there were the muggle imports and export ventures. Muggle jeans, vitamins, and soothers were just the latest three things the Malfoy family imported from muggles and improved upon. Before that there were imports of food, paper, alcohol, and cloth. There were also exports of things made by elves or wizards to muggles; nothing magical of course, but there were certain things that were easier and cheaper to manufacture with magic. Swords, watches, synthetic diamonds, and crystal goblets were just a few of the items. None of the items were cheap or purchased by the typical muggle, but the items were valuable enough that the sale to just a few rich muggles brought in enough profit to justify Lucius’ efforts.

            Then there were the complex finances of the Ravensdale Family Wizarding Store, which Lucius had purchased after the war for a minuscule price now that there were no surviving members of the Ravensdale family capable of running the store. Lucius planned on fixing the place up, filling it with Malfoy merchandise, and renaming it the Malfoy Family Wizarding Store, but for now it was still the Ravensdale place and was selling off the end of the merchandise the place had come with. Harry actually had to look through the sales records of the store down to each and every purchase, making it the most difficult business to audit.

            Needless to say, Harry didn’t finish the audit that first night. He and Mr. Shafiq spent several hours a day for a week working on it. In the end, it all added up and every knut that was deposited into Lucius’ vaults in the last year was accounted for. The information that Lucius was involved in illegal potion trading was nothing more than a Death Eater’s lies designed to cause trouble for Lucius, because Lucius had turned his back on the Dark Lord, and to create more work for the Ministry, for having the nerve to arrest said Death Eater.

            The experience taught Harry a lot about Lucius and not just about what sort of business Lucius was away on all day five days a week. Harry learned that his father-in-law was currently completely legit and that when Lucius said the Ministry was falsely accusing him of something, Lucius wasn’t necessarily lying. Harry also learned that part of being an Auror was investigating all accusations and not rushing to judgment, especially on the word of a convicted criminal.

            And well, all of that suited Draco and Lucius just fine, because it meant that Harry was less suspicious of them and therefor more likely to not believe the accusations when they actually do something illegal. No one bothered to mention to Harry that if they were to do something illegal, like potion dealing, they wouldn’t do it in a manner that was traceable by the Ministry. Not that anyone in the Malfoy family was currently doing anything illegal; not since Harry joined the family. Obviously the family was in the spotlight of the public eye at the moment, which meant right now wasn’t the time for illegal activities; every Malfoy knew that. And with the Savior in the family, they could afford to be legit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next will be Halloween!


	57. Chapter57

            The week before Halloween Madam Malkin sent over a request to bring the boys to her shop to make the final adjustments, since everyone knew how quickly babies grew. She promised to close down the shop to all other customers for the morning, locking the doors and closing the thick drapes that covered the storefront window. And so Harry and Draco flooed with the boys straight into the shop.

            Madam Malkin started with Sev, who grinned a large smile, showing off his new tooth on the top of his mouth, and stood on the stool, holding Draco’s hands for support. Sev’s costume was made out of a shiny green material with a scale pattern on it. It had a hood with the face of a snake on top and the snout of a snake with a forked tongue sticking out over the forehead. He hissed at his costume and kept trying to reach around behind him to grab the thick green tail. He laughed when he finally got hold of that tail.

            Teddy went next, with Harry holding the baby as Madam Malkin worked. Teddy’s costume was a fiery red that flickered between red orange, scarlet, and true red with a scale pattern to it. It had a hood with a stuffed dragon’s head on top and a grey cloud of smoke came out of the nostrils once it was on Teddy’s head. There were two great big wing-shaped flaps of fabric attached to the back. Madam Malkin pulled them each around his body, inserting the baby’s hands into the little cuffs of fabric, so that the wings flapped when he moved his arms. He too laughed at his costume and quickly proceeded to stick his hand and the part of a wing that was attached to said hand into his mouth.

            Scorp was last and Draco held him up for Madam Malkin. Scorp’s costume was a shiny iridescent blue and black material, which didn’t have a pattern to it. It had a pair of eyes on Scorp’s chest with an arachnid looking mouth. There were two large claws, one on either side of the costume and like the wings on Teddy’s costume, the claws had cuffs that Scorp’s hands were inserted into so that they moved with his arms. A long thin segmented tail came out of the rear and went down almost to the ground before turning up and reconnecting to the costume in between the shoulder blades. The tail continued up over the hood of the costume and a stinger stuck out over the forehead.

            Unlike Teddy and Sev who were distracted by their costumes enough to be entertained during the fitting, Scorp didn’t seem to care about his costume. Instead the baby started crying, likely from having to stay still and being prodded at by a strange witch. Luckily Scorp hadn’t grown any taller since his measurements were taken so he was done quickly. And then they were finished and flooing back to the Manor with the babies.

            Everything looked like it was coming together for a perfect first Halloween as a family, but when dealing with babies, something always comes up to throw everything off. This time it was Scorp and Teddy both cutting their first teeth. Scorp’s whininess from the fitting carried over; by the next day the baby was absolutely miserable with the agony of the tooth breaking through his gums. Not even teething rings, ice cream, pain potion, soothers, or his favorite unicorn blanket could keep the baby happy.

            Harry couldn’t handle it, so Narcissa took charge of Scorp for the week. She spent most of the time behind a muffling charm in the third bedroom so that the crying wouldn’t bother everyone else in the house. Not that he cried the entire time, because she managed with the help of the baby pain potion to keep him entertained with elves and iced teethers for a good portion of it. But then there was also the fact that Draco couldn’t bear to nurse him right now with the way the baby was biting and his hatred of bottles, which alone led to frequent tantrums settled only when his tummy grew so hungry that he gave in and drank the bottle.

            Teddy started whining three days after Scorp and by the morning of Halloween it was clear that he too was cutting his first tooth. His bottom gum was red, he was drooling constantly, and he chewed on everything. Harry felt bad about handing Scorp off to Narcissa, so he tried to comfort Teddy. After half an hour, he couldn’t stand it any longer and cracked, passing the baby to Draco. At least it was a Saturday, so Draco was free and Harry didn’t have to worry about disturbing Draco’s studying.

            “Harry, you look really stressed out. Don’t let this get to you,” Draco said, bouncing Edward up and down while rubbing the fussing baby’s back.

            “I’m just frustrated. How come it wasn’t this bad when Sev cut that tooth a few weeks ago?” Harry asked, picking up Sev from where the baby was in the process of pulling himself up, taking half a step without holding on, falling, and pulling himself up again.

            “Because Sev has already cut two teeth. Let me tell you that when he cut that first one, he was a nightmare.”

            “I don’t believe it, not my little Sev. You’d never be a nightmare, would you Sev?”

            “No,” Sev said, having caught on to Scorp’s favorite word.

            “See, at least Sev doesn’t cry at me.”

            “I’m gonna take Edward for a walk and see if that calms him. We’ll floo over to the guesthouse and see if George is there yet.”

            Draco left with Teddy and Harry played with Sev a bit, holding the baby’s hands as Sev walked around the nursery. Draco came back half an hour later and confirmed that George was already setting things up for the party. He sent Harry and Sev to go catch up with George, because Draco thought his husband could use some time out of the house. Not that he didn’t want to get away from the crying too, but Harry was pregnant and he wanted to take the brunt of the responsibility from Harry when it came to unpleasant things like teething. He thought that taking care of Edward for the day was the least he could do after he’d pawned Scorp off on his mother, but then Scorp couldn’t see him without wanting to nurse and he really couldn’t stand being bitten again right now.

            Of course with all of the teething that was going on lately Draco’s nursing only routine had gone out the window and he was back to the breast pump. Only now he was much more careful about how much he pumped. Instead of just leaving the pumps on all day, he would pump for forty-five minutes every four hours while he was awake and once during the night. And the elves had strict instructions to monitor how much liquid was produced and to tell him if it went over a set amount. He was being very cautious, but then the last thing he wanted was to wind up in St. Mungo’s again and put more stress on Harry.

            Harry spent the rest of the morning watching Sev while talking to George about the very latest in Weasley Wizard Wheezes merchandise, all of which George brought with him. Most of it was absolutely ridiculous Savior Harry Malfoy themed versions of regular things, like the Savior Harry Malfoy exploding snap card set and the Savior Harry Malfoy wizard chess set. And there was the Savior Harry Malfoy costume kit that had been super popular this Halloween; it included a pair of glasses, an edible lightning bolt scar tattoo, and a fake pregnancy belly.

            Harry picked up the fake belly and then compared it to his own mostly flat waist and said, “George, you do know that I’m only two and a half months pregnant, right?”

            “Yeah, but the fans crave what the fans crave. These things flew right off the shelf. But then the vomit is cherry flavor, so half of them are selling for the bottle of cherry vomit alone,” George replied, pulling out the spray can from the box to show Harry.

            Harry dropped the can of spray vomit back into the box. Vomiting was a sensitive subject with him right now. He was up every night for the past two weeks puking his guts out, no matter how much elven tea he drank. His body seemed to be going into over drive with the nausea. He hadn’t even made it down to breakfast that morning before he was puking his guts out.

            Thinking about this morning’s adventure with the toilet reminded Harry that he was hungry, so he took Sev back to the Manor for lunch. He would’ve invited George to join him, but Weasley’s weren’t allowed to know the secret and Andy had promised to feed George.

            Draco was sitting in the dining room with Edward, who had miraculously stopped crying. The lack of crying had a lot to do with the fact that Draco was feeding Edward breast milk ice cream, which was sweet, creamy, and most importantly cold enough to numb the baby’s sore gum.

            “You’ll have to give Sev a bowl too,” Draco said.

            Harry agreed and strapped Sev into the blue highchair, making sure to fasten the baby’s bib. Sev seemed very happy to be getting ice cream for lunch, except for the fact that he made the mistake of answering Harry’s question regarding whether he wanted it with the word, “No.” He hadn’t yet learned his lesson not to say no when dealing with matters of food.

            “Scorp shouldn’t have to miss out on the ice cream,” Harry said, trying to wrestle the spoon away from Sev after Sev swallowed the first bite of ice cream.

            “He’s not; the elves already sent a bowl up to mother and you know his highchair has been up on the third floor all week.”

            “Good.”

            “Mother says that ice cream is practically the only thing Scorp’s been eating today. I feel like a monster letting him go hungry,” Draco said.

            “He has a choice to eat; he’s just choosing not to, because he doesn’t like the container.”

            “Yeah, but he’s so small; he shouldn’t be made to go without a meal just because he’s stubborn.”

            “Draco, I saw what Scorp did to you. I know he didn’t mean it, but you were bleeding. That’s got to be painful, especially when you constantly have to pump.”

            “Yeah, but that’s what healing charms and pain potions are for.”

            “Healing charms to that area aren’t supposed to be used more than once a day and we both know that the pain potion for breast feeding wizards is weak.” Harry had experience with said potion, because it was the same potion that pregnant wizards were allowed to take. He’d had a headache every day this week and not once did the potion do more than take the edge off of his pain.

            “You’re one to talk; you blame yourself for everything, so why can’t I blame myself for this?”

            “Because it’s not your fault. At least Scorp took so long to get his first tooth. Why do you think that is? Wasn’t Sev around Teddy’s age when he got his first two?”

            “Yeah, but all babies develop at their own rates and Scorp’s always been a bit behind. The muggles told me that that was to be expected, because he was born underdeveloped. They said to expect him to do everything a couple of months later than typical.”

            Scorp was almost eleven months old, so his teeth were more than just a couple of months late, but Harry let it drop. Instead Harry started telling Draco about George’s entertainment for the night.

            After lunch, the babies were sticky from the ice cream, so Harry and Draco gave them a bath, before they all took a nap; the adults were both tired from being up in the night and from dealing with cranky babies. After naptime was dinner time and then time to dress for the party.

            The sun was just setting when Harry and Draco flooed with Sev and Teddy over to the guesthouse, where the guests were already arriving. Narcissa arrived a minute later with Scorp, who’s screams they heard from the moment she stepped out of the floo. But then Scorp always complained about traveling and cutting that tooth made everything worse, so she didn’t think the cause was lost yet. Besides, he looked adorable in the scorpion costume, even if he sounded like a banshee with his wailing.

            Draco tried to ignore Scorp’s cries when his mother exited the guesthouse with the baby, but then Scorp started screaming, “Fa-er!” over and over again and Draco couldn’t resist. Draco traded babies with his mother, handing Edward over and taking Scorp into his arms for the first time since Scorp had bit him.

            Scorp’s cries lessoned the moment Draco took hold of the baby; screams turned into whimpering and snuffling as Draco soothed Scorp with gentle bouncing motion and patting the baby’s back. “Fa-er,” Scorp said again, in a tone that sounded grateful.

            “Yes Scorp, father’s here,” Draco soothed. “Mother, did he eat?”

            “Another bowl of ice cream and half his bottle of milk,” Narcissa confirmed.

            “The exploding snabberwitches are scaring him,” Luna said dreamily to Harry in reference to Scorp’s crying. Luna, Ginny, and Hermione had all flooed directly from Headmistress McGonagall’s office, having special permission from the headmistress to attend the celebration.

            “He’s cutting a tooth,” Harry explained, watching as a tendril of drool fell out of Scorp’s mouth and down Draco’s back. Draco didn’t even seem to notice.

            Scorp clutched on tightly to Draco and was asleep before the swarm of witches engulfing Harry and Narcissa finished cooing over the other two babies. Draco squeezed in next to Hermione to get close enough to Harry to be heard. “Harry, I’m gonna go back home with Scorp. You stay here and have fun.”

            “Are you sure? He’s sleeping; you could give him to your mum to take home,” Harry replied.

            Draco knew he could pawn Scorp off on his mother again, but even in the baby’s sleep, Scorp had a death grip on his robes. He felt bad about putting the baby down when Scorp had obviously been so relieved to see him. Maybe he shouldn’t have pushed Scorp away so much these past few days. Sure Scorp had cried to be nursed every time the baby saw him, but he was the parent and he could’ve held Scorp and refused to nurse Scorp at the same time, couldn’t he? At the time he’d reasoned that would make Scorp’s crying worse, but now he wasn’t so sure.

            “Yeah, I’m gonna stay with him; he’s pretty miserable,” Draco said, before flooing home with Scorp.

            Harry stayed at the Halloween party with Sev. Teddy started fussing and whining not long after Scorp and Andy took the baby into her place to sooth. So Halloween wasn’t the fun family costume party Harry had wanted, but he did get to catch up with his friends and show off Sev, who looked absolutely adorable in his green snake costume, especially because Sev hissed almost the whole night and clearly loved the tail.

            Sev got tired of being held about half an hour into the party, so Harry started putting the baby down while he played a few of the games George had brought; Savior Harry Malfoy hangman was a hoot. Hermione, Ginny, and Luna took over watching Sev.

            And then at about eight o’clock, just when Harry was getting tired and thinking of taking Sev home for the night, Ginny shouted out, “Harry, you have to come here and see this!”

            Ginny, Hermione, and Sev were about ten feet away, out of the way of most of the people playing the games. The three witches were surrounding the baby, who was standing up on his own without holding anything for support or falling down. It lasted for about another second, but then he got back up and did it again and this time he lasted for about a minute before falling down. Harry was stunned speechless.

            “He’s been trying to stand and walk all night. Mostly he took one step and fell down, but this is the longest he’s stayed up,” Hermione said.

            “He hasn’t stood before. It’s always one step and then falling. I have to take a picture of this or Draco’ll kill me,” Harry replied.

            Harry called a house elf who brought the camera. He took a few shots of Sev standing and then talked to Hermione, Ginny, and Luna for a bit. The party was winding down and he was tired, so he soon said goodnight and flooed home with Sev, Andy following behind him with Teddy.

 

* * *

 

            If Harry had thought Halloween was ruined by Scorp and Teddy’s teething, it was nothing compared to the séance Lucius tried to lead them in Sunday morning in the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow. Teddy cried through the entire thing and Scorp screamed bloody murder when it began. Narcissa and Andy ended up taking Scorp and Teddy home, allowing Draco and Lucius to carry on with the ritual. Only the ritual was so boring Harry began to miss Scorp and Teddy’s crying and actually wished he’d volunteered to take the babies home, even though he hated crying.

            Harry let out a sigh of relief when the séance finished and it turned out that he hadn’t died of boredom after all. That relief was short lived, because an hour after the séance, they flooed to the Rosier’s home for a midday feast. The food was delicious and there was way too much of it, but the people were a problem.

            Mr. Rosier, who was Druella’s brother, looked to be about a hundred and seemed to be about as awful as Druella and Lucius during his Death Eater days combined. Speaking of Draco’s grandmother, she was there too and she and her brother told the most horrible story about how the two of them had gone off and tortured muggle children for fun back when they were children. The worst part was the fond voice they told the story in and the way they laughed at the end when the muggle child peed her pants.

            “Don’t mind father. He’s a harmless old man too set in his ways to realize that muggle torturing is out right now,” Mrs. Pucey said to Harry when she noticed Harry’s pale disturbed complexion.

            Adrian Pucey and his father were there too, since his mother was a Rosier by birth. Adrian seemed alright and didn’t laugh at any of his grandfather’s horrid old stories, but that didn’t make Harry any more comfortable in the strange house. And he never bothered to say more than the cursory hello to Harry. He spent some time catching up with Draco, but mostly he was engrossed in his date.

            Acacia Rosier, the nurse who had tended to Draco in the hospital, was there and she was alright, but the rest of her family was weird. Her mother, Mrs. Rosier was probably the most disturbing person there, because she spent a good deal of the time conversing with the giant portrait of her late husband; there was a life sized portrait of Evan Rosier hanging on the wall in the dining room. It was no wonder Evan Rosier Junior was the shy awkward type who didn’t mutter a single word during the entire feast when his father was a dead Death Eater and his mother was crazy. Harry almost felt sorry for Evan and thought about trying to talk to Evan, but Evan’s brooding was just too creepy, so Harry kept silent. What was surprising was that Acacia had turned out alright.

            Harry wondered why Draco had insisted on taking the babies to this bloody awful feast and he took the first chance to escape. Twenty minutes in when Teddy started screaming, Harry volunteered to return to the Manor with the baby.

            “Are you sure you want to take him, Harry? I don’t mind going,” Andy offered, but it was clear that she really wanted to stay and continue the conversation she had been having with her cousin, Mrs. Pucey.

            “No, you stay, I’ll go,” Harry said.

            Harry went home and found Narcissa with Scorp in the nursery. Scorp had been miserable the entire day to the point where they hadn’t even tried taking Scorp to the feast, which was why Narcissa had stayed home with the baby. But now Scorp was quietly sitting in the swing gnawing on a frozen teething ring.

            Narcissa took Teddy from Harry and gave the baby a pain potion, before summoning Mipsy for another frozen teething ring. “You can go back to the party, Harry,” Narcissa said, once she had calmed Teddy down.

            “Um, that’s okay. Why don’t I take a turn with the babies and you go back to the party?” Harry asked. Right now he’d even take being left alone with two teething babies over going back to that bloody excuse for a party.

            “Harry, you shouldn’t be over doing it, not in your state. I don’t mind missing the feast.”

            “No, it’s okay, really. And I won’t be over doing it: I’ll call Hermione.”

            “Are you sure?”  
            “Yes, I’m sure.”

            “Well alright then, but if they get to be too much for you, then firecall, alright?”

            Harry agreed and then firecalled Hermione who was at the Burrow for the weekend, inviting her over. He told her that he wanted to invite Molly over too, but didn’t want to be found out for letting a Weasley into the house. He was the Manor’s secret keeper and up until now he had been obeying Draco’s wishes and not given the secret to anyone in the Weasley family. But he had two teething babies in the nursery, he had just had the most awful day imaginable, and it was time to call in reinforcements in the form of Molly.

            “Harry, we better cover all of the portraits so no one knows what we’re doing,” Hermione said, covering Merlin’s canvas in the nursery with a black cloth and putting a soundproof bubble around the canvas, so that the painting wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything in the nursery.

            Harry agreed and began closing all of the spare doors, blocking off the portraits in the other rooms from seeing or hearing anything, while Hermione covered and sound proofed all of the portraits. Only when all of the portraits were covered, did Harry firecall Molly and ask her to floo over.

            By the time Molly finally arrived, Scorp was crying again and she took the cranky baby into her arms. “Well here’s the problem: he’s cutting his first two teeth at once!” Molly announced bouncing the baby up and down.

            “Two teeth? But I only saw the one,” Harry replied. There had only been one three days ago when Scorp had bitten Draco’s nipple. Harry had made the mistake of putting his finger in Scorp’s mouth to check how sharp the tooth was and had gotten a bite on his finger to thank for it. The tooth wasn’t very far in, having just broken the surface Thursday morning, but it was very sharp.

            “Yes, there’s the one that’s already broken the surface, but the tooth right next to it is also coming in. And at his age it’s a wonder he’s not got more teeth already,” Molly replied.

            “Well isn’t there something we can do for him?” Harry asked.

            “There is. I brewed up a batch of my family’s famous teething potion the other day when I heard about your troubles, dear,” Molly said, pulling out a vial of potion from her pocket. She applied a fingerful to the enflamed area, running her finger along the swollen gum in Scorp’s mouth. Scorp stopped crying immediately. “See, works every time.”

            “Thank you so much, Molly,” Harry said.

            “Oh it’s nothing. Anytime,” Molly replied.

            Teddy was the next one to cry and the next to receive Molly’s miracle teething potion cure. It worked just as well on Teddy as it had on Scorp and Harry insisted on getting the recipe from Molly. He had no plans on brewing the potion himself, but he was sure Draco would brew it for him.

            Molly stayed for two hours and seemed to be having a grand time playing with the babies. She only left because the babies had gone down for their naps and Harry was worried the Rosier’s feast would be ending soon. He didn’t want to be caught with a Weasley in the house, not yet wanting to get into that argument with Draco. On the plus side, Molly left the vial of potion for Harry and told him to firecall her anytime if he needed help with anything.

            As soon as Molly was through the floo, Hermione and Harry went through the house uncovering portraits, removing the sound-bubbles from portraits, and opening doors which weren’t normally kept closed. By the time Draco returned with Sev, Harry and Hermione were sitting on the couch in the sitting room as if they hadn’t been up to anything.

            “How did you get both Scorp and Teddy to go down for their nap already?” Draco asked, coming back from laying Sev down.

            “Molly sent me with a vial of her teething potion to try. It worked like a dream,” Hermione said, holding up the vial Molly had left.

            “Is it safe for babies?” Draco asked, examining the foreign potion.

            “Molly said it was. She sent the recipe too, if you want to take a look at it,” Harry replied, holding out the parchment with the recipe.

            Draco took the parchment and read through the list of ingredients. “I’m gonna take this to St. Mungo’s real quick and ask what the restrictions on usage are with young babies, just to be sure,” Draco said.

            “If it came from Molly Weasley, I’m sure it’s harmless, but go if you must,” Harry replied.

            Draco was sure of no such thing. For all he knew, the Weasley violent streak might be caused by ingesting too much of this very potion. It was better safe than sorry, so he took the potion vial and the instructions to St. Mungo’s and got one of the pediatric specialist to confirm that the potion was indeed safe for babies, before apparating back to the Manor.

            “Well, it’s not poison, is it?” Harry asked with a teasing grin when Draco returned.

            “No and it’s safe for babies. But it shouldn’t be taken more than once every four hours and no more than four times a day. Did you know that?” Draco asked smugly.

            “Um, no,” Harry replied.

            “Well next time, do find out the specifics before you overdose one of our boys,” Draco replied.

            “How was the feast, Draco?” Hermione asked, changing the subject.

            “Wonderful. It was nice catching up with Adrian again. He plans on marrying Violet Parkinson; she’s a lovely young witch, don’t you think, Harry?” Draco asked.

            “Oh, is that who she was?” Harry asked.

            “Are you seriously telling me you didn’t notice the resemblance between her and Pansy?” Draco asked. Violet looked almost identical to Pansy, except where Pansy had her father’s nose, Violet had her mother’s more appealing nose.

            As a matter of fact, without the ugly heinous nose that made Pansy look like a pug, Harry hadn’t been able to spot the overwhelming similarity between the two witches. “Sorry, I must’ve missed it. I thought you said your mum’s family was related to the Crabbes. Why wasn’t Mrs. Crabbe there?” Harry asked, changing the subject. Not that he was broken up about not seeing Mrs. Crabbe, but he wondered.

            “That was Grandmother Druella’s family. The Crabbes were related through Grandfather Cygnus,” Draco explained. “We’ll spend Beltane with what’s left of them.”

            Harry groaned at that. The last thing he wanted was to spend another holiday with Draco’s family, even if it wasn’t for another six months.

            “Harry, I don’t know why you’re complaining. I’m not complaining about spending Christmas with the Weasleys,” Draco replied.

            “What?” Hermione asked surprised.

            Harry’s mouth was hanging open in a flabbergasted manner. “Could you repeat that, Draco?” he asked.

            “Or did you want to celebrate Imbolc with them instead? We always celebrate Imbolc, but I was under the impression you preferred the muggle holidays,” Draco replied.

            “Um, Christmas is good, but why are we spending it with the Weasleys? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if we did, but I kind of gathered the impression that you didn’t approve of them,” Harry said.

            “Did you have some other family you wanted to spend it with then? Your muggle family? I didn’t think you were that close,” Draco said, hoping that Harry didn’t plan on making him spend holidays with the muggles.

            “We’re not. I prefer the Weasleys, but why are we spending Christmas with my family?” Harry asked.

            “We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just assumed you would want to,” Draco replied.

            “Draco, is this something that is in your marriage contract?” Hermione hazard a guess. It would explain the miscommunication.

            “Yes, it is. Samhain is with the Rosiers, Beltane is with the Crabbes, and Imbolc and Lughnasadh are with Harry’s family. I went out of my way to invite everyone I thought Harry considered family to his birthday party, which was on Lughnasadh. I even invited Hagrid,” Draco said. The only people he had left out of the party were the old people, because he had wanted to keep the party to just the young people.

            Harry didn’t know what Loonysay was or why it was on his birthday, but he smiled as he remembered all of his friends had been there on his birthday. He thought about it for a few minutes and concluded that he was definitely getting the better deal out of it, because Christmas and his birthday were better than the day after Halloween and Beltane. He wasn’t positive when Beltane was, but he was pretty sure it was in the spring sometime. And if he had to put up with going to the Rosier’s and the Crabbe’s once a year, then it was worth it, since Draco would be putting up with going to the Weasleys for Christmas.

            “Does Molly know you’re coming over for Christmas?” Hermione asked.

            “Probably not if Harry didn’t bother to inform her,” Draco answered.

            “Well I didn’t know we were going. I thought you didn’t want the babies over there,” Harry said.

            “That’s true; I don’t want them over there. But it is in our marriage contract and I assume you’ll arrange for Ron to be elsewhere when we visit. Father, Mother, and Aunt Andy will be there to help protect the boys if any of the Weasleys get out of hand,” Draco said.

            “Wait, your parents are coming too?” Harry asked.

            “Yes, I’m not going to leave them here to spend the holidays by themselves, am I? Did you not read the marriage contract at all?” Draco asked. He had known from their last conversation about the marriage contract that Harry hadn’t read it very carefully, but he still thought Harry would at least have a vague idea about it, especially when it concerned Harry’s holidays.

            “No, not really.”

            “Harry! How could you sign something without reading it?” Hermione asked accusingly. “You could’ve signed your freedom away!”

            “I’m highly offended by that accusation! I’ll have you know that I didn’t want a slave; this is the other parent of my children we’re talking about here,” Draco replied scathingly.

            “Sorry Draco, I didn’t mean it like that,” Hermione replied.

            “Next time I sign a contract, I’ll let you read over it first, Hermione,” Harry said.

            “No need; you’re not signing anything ever again without my approval. I won’t let you give your freedom away,” Draco reassured Harry.

            “Thanks,” Harry replied.

            “Well I better get going. Shall I inform Molly to expect the whole Malfoy family?” Hermione asked.

            “Everyone but my grandmother,” Draco confirmed. “Well Aunt Andy’s not in the contract, but I assume she’ll be where Edward is.”

            Hermione said her goodbyes and then apparated to the Burrow to inform Molly of the Malfoy’s impending visit come Christmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Moving right along. I think I’ll just do about one chapter a month until we get closer to the birth of the baby.  
> The middle name doesn’t necessarily have to be after Sirius, but in last chapter I wanted to show Draco making an effort for Harry’s sake. The only requirements are that it’s something Harry and Draco would pick and sounds good between Lilac and Malfoy. One of my wonderful reviewers informed me that the Egyptian goddess Isis is associated with Sirius the Dog Star. Therefore making Lilac’s middle name Isis would be in honor of Sirius and sound much better. What do the rest of you think? Are there any other suggestions out there? At the very least, they need more names to argue over.


	58. Chapter58

            Sev and Scorp’s first birthday fell on a Tuesday that year. They celebrated at home with ice cream and a family dinner and then again the following Saturday at the party. The party was a huge crazy affair and took up Andy’s entire lawn. Not as many families were invited as were with the baby shower, but this party wasn’t just witches; it included wizards and children as well, so it worked out to be more people; a lot more people.

            All of Harry and Draco’s friends came, plus Draco’s family. The extended Weasley family was there, but only those with children. There were a lot of children there too; so much so that Harry didn’t know where all the children came from.

            The yard looked like a carnival the way they had it set up with a magical petting zoo and kiddy rides. The unicorn was a big hit, but the carousel was a bit lame. The line for the toy broom stick ride was very long, so that must have been popular, although Sev, Scorp, and Teddy were all too little to try it, so Harry didn’t know what was so special about it. Harry mostly stayed in the petting zoo, because Scorp screamed whenever they tried to take the baby away from the unicorn. Sev liked the python and Teddy didn’t really care one way or the other.

            It was a bit surprising that there were so many strange people around and Scorp wasn’t bothered. When Harry asked Draco about it, Draco explained that it was likely the positive effect of the unicorn’s close proximity canceling out the influx of strange magic from the guests. That explained why Scorp screamed whenever he was separated from the unicorn. And that was why they brought the unicorn with them when they went to cut the cake, sing happy birthday, and open presents.

            Sev and Scorp got everything they needed and then some. Teddy also got a few things, because like with the baby shower, many people bought gifts in sets of three. There were tons of clothes for both twins and a few pairs of shoes for Sev. There were three tricycles, three toy brooms, and one toy car. There were a ton of toys and then there were the gifts that weren’t appropriate for babies, but were given to the twins anyway. Those gifts often had special charms on them and mostly came from Draco’s friends and family, with one for Sev and one for Scorp. These gifts included a pair of swords, gold necklaces, platinum bracelets, flying carpets, and crystal balls.

            Hagrid’s gifts this time were a huge hit. For Scorp, Hagrid made a vaguely unicorn shaped plush toy complete with a mane that contained real unicorn hair. For Sev, Hagrid made a lumpy plush snake toy out of a real Boomslang skin with a pair of fangs carved out of bone. Sev absolutely adored his snake and Scorp was not to be parted from his unicorn toy.

            The entire thing was just one huge over-the-top party, complete with reporters trying to cover the event for the papers and photographers trying to capture every moment on film. By the time the elves’ song and dance performance was over and they were serving the food, Harry was more than ready for it all to be over. He couldn’t wait until naptime when he would be allowed to leave. He was now four and a half months pregnant and was beginning to tire easily and had recently started taking naps with Draco and the boys.

            “Harry, this party is absolutely wonderful. My nephews and nieces are having a ball,” Molly said, sitting down next to Harry with a plate of food.

            Harry had a plate too that was stacked high with food, because the elves had anticipated his increased appetite. “That’s great, Molly. I had no idea our friends and family knew so many children,” he replied.

            “Yes, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Molly asked and Harry nodded. “Now listen, I’ve been planning the Christmas party and I don’t want you to worry about a thing. Hermione told me that you’re coming with the whole family, so I’m making extra food and I’ve already been working on sweaters for everyone. And Ron has to work that day, so you don’t need to worry about that either.”

            “That sucks that they make him work on holidays.”

            “Yes, well it’s understandable. The Aurors with wives and children ought to be home to spend the day with their family and someone has to keep law and order. In a few years he’ll settle down with Hermione and then he’ll be one of the Aurors taking the holidays off and the new Aurors will be holding down the fort. And until then, there’s always the day after the holiday. We had a little get together a few days after Halloween for him and we’re going to do the same a few days after Christmas.”

            “That’s great! Maybe I can come over and leave the kids with Draco,” Harry suggested. He hadn’t really forgiven Ron, so much as forgotten about it. When he was reminded about what an arse Ron had been, he was still mad, but most of the time he didn’t dwell over Ron.

            “Yes, do come over. You know we love to have you anytime, dear.”

            “Yeah, I know. I wonder if I’ll have to miss holidays with my kids once I go back to work.”

            “You already have a family, dear, so you wouldn’t be made to work on holidays with the other new recruits.”

            “That hardly seems fair though.”

            “Oh I’m sure when your children are older you’ll work plenty of holidays to make up for it. With the way they grow, they’ll be off to Hogwarts before you know it and then you’ll be free to work Halloween and Easter.”

            “Yeah, tell me about it. I swear my stomach grows every day.”

            “May I feel, dear? What did you decide to name her again?” Molly asked, reaching a hand out towards Harry’s stomach, but not touching it until Harry nodded.

            Harry didn’t particularly like to be touched. It seemed like all day strangers or people he barely knew were coming up to him and wanting to touch his belly. But Molly was like a mother to him, so he didn’t have a problem with her touching him. “Lilac. Lilac Aiki Malfoy,” Harry answered.

            “That’s a lovely name. I’m sure your parents would approve.”

            Somehow that meant a lot to Harry, because he had no idea what his parents would approve of and what they wouldn’t. Molly didn’t know his parents either, but she was a mother, so she had a better idea of these things than he did. And he was a bit emotional these days, so a few tears fell from his eyes, which he wiped away. Now he understood why Draco was always crying when they had first gotten together, because pregnancy hormones wreaked havoc with emotions. Harry, who had hardly cried in his life, had been crying more these last four months than he could remember crying in his entire lifetime.

            “Are you making my husband cry?” Draco asked, coming over with Sev in one hand and a plate piled high with food in the other. Sev had Hagrid’s stuffed snake in one hand and the tail of the long toy was trailing into the grass. Sev was reaching out for the crisp, but Draco pulled the little hand away and gave Sev a cracker instead. Sev cried and dropped the cracker.

            “Here, let me take him, dear,” Molly said reaching out for Sev.

            Draco handed Sev over. “Thanks. He seems to have figured out that our food is better. He’s got the four teeth now, but I still don’t feel right about letting him have food he might choke on.”

            “And he doesn’t need all of the sugar and fat in our food either,” Molly said and Draco agreed.

            Sev fussed and was clearly trying to get down, so Molly put the baby down by her feet. He stood up and walked a few steps away, dragging the snake along with him and turning back with a huge smile on his face.

            “He’s been walking all over the place this last month,” Harry said. “I can hardly keep up with him anymore.”

            Only a few days after Halloween Sev had made the leap from standing to running and in the last week or so, he had finally mastered the art of walking. Draco had taken to casting a cushioning charm on the baby’s forehead every morning, so that when he ran into things or fell, he didn’t hurt himself.

            Sev wasn’t the only baby with increased mobility, because Teddy was now crawling all over the place and even Scorp was more mobile. Scorp wasn’t crawling, but he had finally learned how to turn over; he could only do it in one direction, because of his leg, but he could still do it. And Scorp had learned how to pull himself up onto his right knee and then stand on just the right leg while holding onto something. That meant that all three babies were now getting into more trouble and making more messes all over the nursery. Harry wasn’t even trying to keep up with the babies anymore, but let the elves chase after the babies and clean up the mess.

            “Sev, come back over here,” Draco called.

            There were a lot of interesting things to capture Sev’s attention at the party, so he laughed and kept going, causing Molly to chase after the baby. Andy came over with Teddy a short time later, followed by Narcissa, Scorp, and the unicorn.

            After they ate, Harry and Draco went around thanking their friends and then flooed back to the nursery with the babies. Harry fell into bed exhausted and wondering why baby birthday parties were so much work, when Sev and Scorp would never remember it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sliced my index finger open on Saturday and got 4 stitches. Luckily I’m fairly decent at typing without it and I already had a rough draft of this chapter, so all I had to do was edit it.  
> Up next is Christmas with the Weasleys! Anyone have any ideas for what will happen when the Malfoys and the Weasleys spend Christmas together? I think for the most part they should all be on their best behavior, but what about the Weasley/Malfoy feud? Anyone have any ideas of what started it or how Arthur and Lucius will react to each other now? Plus then there’s what Lucius did to Ginny with the diary…


	59. Chapter59

            Hurry up, the reporters are waiting to photograph us and we still have to get to the Weasley’s,” Draco said, urging Harry along. Draco had gotten himself and the twins ready and Narcissa had dressed Teddy, which meant the only person Harry had to get ready was himself. But Harry was now just past five months pregnant and having trouble doing things like walking, bending down, and tying his shoes, which was why he was late. That and he’d had to stop to pee about three times.

            “I still don’t see why your grandpa’s charity is choosing to help a Death Eater’s family when there are tons of families on our side of the war who need help,” Harry complained, waddling slowly towards the fireplace.

            “We’ve been through this before. Grandfather Abraxas’ charity was designed to help women who are victims of domestic violence get away from their abusive husbands. The families you’re talking about don’t have abusive husbands. The husbands are either dead or decent and need help just as badly as the wives. There are tons of people trying to help people like that out.

            “Cecelia Flint, on the other hand, meets the criteria my grandfather set in place,” Draco continued. “Her husband Dax Flint is a Death Eater. An un-captured Death Eater who left her and her three kids all under the age of five to fend for themselves while he went on the run. What’s left of the Flint family are a bunch of Death Eater supporting women. All of the men are dead or already captured; all except for Dax Flint. Cecelia’s family can’t help, because she’s a Crabbe and the Crabbes too were decimated by the war. She wants to get away from Dax and the Flint family and she was being put out on the streets before my father let her move into the Abraxas Malfoy Charitable Home for Battered Women.”

            Draco had explained to Harry that the small cottage that Cecelia Flint and her three children were currently living in was vacated by the previous beneficiaries of the charity during the war when Voldemort moved into the Manor. The previous battered woman didn’t want her children so close to Voldemort, so she packed up her kids and left. All those years of free rent meant that she was now on her feet. Her new apartment was tiny and cramped, but the charity had accomplished its goal of getting another pureblood witch away from an abusive husband.

            “I’m sure there must be victims of domestic violence on my side of the war too,” Harry protested, finally reaching the fireplace.

            Cecelia Flint was the daughter of a Death Eater, the niece of a Death Eater, the cousin of a Death Eater, had married a Death Eater, and in that marriage gained two additional Death Eater in-laws in her brother-in-law and her father-in-law. Cecelia was surrounded in a sea of Death Eaters and it wasn’t until now that Voldemort was dead and defeated that she had a problem with that. Out of all of those Death Eaters in her life, all but one were dead or imprisoned; the one exception being her husband, Dax Flint.

            Harry hadn’t heard of Dax Flint before Draco told him about Cecelia and choosing her for the charity. Harry hadn’t known that Marcus Flint had an older brother or that said brother was an uncaptured Death Eater. In fact, Robards and the Aurors hadn’t known Dax Flint was a Death Eater at all until Harry’s owl. Cecelia hadn’t seen her husband in two months, since Dax split and left her with the three kids, and Draco had asked Harry to find out if Flint had been captured yet.

            The Ministry hadn’t captured Dax Flint, because they hadn’t been looking for him, since they hadn’t known he was a Death Eater. Now the Ministry had Flint on their list of Death Eaters to track down and capture, but he wasn’t a top priority, being only a minor player. It might be months before Robards could spare a team of Aurors to bring him in. Until then, Cecelia qualified for Draco’s grandfather’s charity.

            What Harry didn’t like about Cecelia was that she hadn’t done anything to get away from the Death Eaters before the end of the war and had even knowingly married one, increasing her ties to Voldemort; it was only now that Voldemort was dead that she wanted help. Although, Harry did have to admit that if it wasn’t for Cecelia coming forward and asking Draco for help, Draco wouldn’t have known that Flint was on the run. If Draco didn’t know, he wouldn’t have told Harry, who wouldn’t have informed Robards, and Flint probably would’ve gone unpunished.

            So in a way, Cecelia had turned her husband in to the authorities, which Harry grudgingly admitted was the right thing to do. But yet again, Cecelia hadn’t done it until after Flint had left her in a bad situation. It wasn’t that Cecelia wanted help getting away from Flint; it was that she needed help after he left and the only way she could get it was by turning him over to the other side. She wasn’t the type of noble war victim Harry would’ve helped if he had had a say in the charity.

            “Yes, but none of them as pureblooded as Cecelia Flint. The charity was specifically designed to benefit pureblood witches. Plus, she’s family, and the Malfoys believe strongly in helping family over strangers.”

            “How is she related to you again?”

            “She’s my late grandfather Cygnus’ cousin’s granddaughter. You’ll meet her family during Beltane. They’re halfway decent people, I promise. Now get your pregnant arse through this floo or we’ll be late to the Weasleys and you’ll have to explain our tardiness to Molly Weasley,” Draco threatened, retrieving Sev from where the baby had toddled off to mess with the vase of flowers on the end table.

            “Fine, I’m going. You got the kids?” Harry asked.

            “Yes, I’ll be fine, just go.” Scorp and Teddy were waiting in the twin stroller, which Draco was pushing with one hand while holding Sev’s hand. Sev would walk through the floo with Draco, but the baby absolutely refused to sit in a stroller.

            “Do you have the toy broomsticks and enough nappies?”

            “Yes, it’s all in the basket of the stroller. Just go.”

            “Alright, I’m going,” Harry said, before flooing to the charity cottage.

            Harry stepped out of the fireplace at a charming if small three bedroom cottage. Draco followed after him with the twin stroller and Sev; together they walked out of the front door, to the front lawn, where Cecelia Flint, her three children, the reporter, and the photographer were waiting. Draco had already given an interview with the Prophet regarding his family’s charitable activity. All that was missing was a photograph to put in the morning’s paper.

            “Ah, the Malfoys have arrived. Excellent. Can I just get Savior and Lord Malfoy in the back each holding a little Malfoy or two,” the photographer requested.

            Cecelia was already in place holding a baby with a toddler and a four-year-old at her feet. Draco put Sev down, before picking up Scorp and Teddy and standing next to Cecelia. The photographer had Harry scoot forward a step and Draco scoot back a step and then had Sev move over towards the middle next to Cecelia’s oldest. They stood like that for a minute while the photographer captured a few shots of them.

            “Alright, that’s it. Thank you so much, Savior and Lord Malfoy,” the reporter said. “You can expect the article to be on the front page tomorrow.” The Malfoy family’s charities didn’t typically rate the front page, but with Harry in the family, everything the Malfoy family did was still making the front page.

            Draco loaded Scorp and Teddy back into the stroller and took Sev’s hand from Harry, because bending down to reach Sev’s hand was hard on Harry right now. Then they went back into the cottage and through the floo to the Burrow. Christmas was already in full swing at the Burrow, with Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius already there.

            Harry wasn’t there to see it, but Lucius had arrived bright and early to apologize to Arthur and settle their past differences before the other guests arrived, because he didn’t want to make a scene. Lucius apologized for giving Ginny the diary and admitted that it was an atrocious thing to do, although he hadn’t known what exactly the diary would do when he did it. He’d known it was designed to bring about the opening of the chamber of secrets and that in order for that it had to be read, but he hadn’t known that the diary would suck the life out of the reader. Arthur accepted the apology graciously and apologized for his older brother Bilius beating the snot out of Lucius on a regular basis when they were kids. Bilius was Lucius’ age, but bigger and stronger and had tormented Lucius mercilessly, even landing Lucius in the hospital wing on multiple occasions, which further perpetuated the Weasley/Malfoy family feud. Now Bilius was dead and both living men agreed it was time to end it.

            When Harry and Draco arrived, Lucius was helping Arthur, Bill, and Percy set up the tent and tables outside and after that there were heating charms that were needed to make the place habitable in the dead of winter. Narcissa and Andy were in the kitchen helping Molly with pies and biscuits. Ginny, Hermione, Fleur, and George were in the living room putting up more decorations. The tree was up and trimmed, but George was unleashing heaps of fake snow. Hermione was transfiguring kernels of popcorn into a miniature train to join the miniature horse drawn carriage that she had already charmed to trot around the room. Ginny was stringing popcorn into garish garlands and Fleur was charming giant snowflakes to appear on the walls.

            To Draco, the place looked like Christmas had exploded in one big tacky Weasley mess. Harry, on the other hand, thought it was brilliant and flopped down onto the sofa.

            “Sorry we’re late; Harry kept complaining about doing a wee bit of charity work and helping out the less fortunate on Christmas,” Draco explained.

            While Draco spoke, Sev ran straight into George’s pile of fake snow and started laughing as he dispersed it.

            “Don’t let Draco fool you; we were helping out Marcus Flint’s older brother’s wife, Cecelia, and their three kids. They deserve their misfortune, if you ask me,” Harry said while Draco let Teddy out, who crawled after Sev. Hermione picked up Scorp, taking the baby over to the fake snow to play.

            “Dax was the Death Eater, not Cecelia. They were being kicked out onto the street and she didn’t have any clothes for her youngest two. I had to give her Sev and Scorp’s old clothes for the baby, even though she has a girl. And I gave her the ugly clothes Sev and Scorp were given for their birthday, for her toddler. It’s winter and the only blankets she has for those kids are the ones I gave her,” Draco said.

            Ginny finished her popcorn garlands and went to show the babies how to mold the fake snow into snowballs to make snowmen, while Harry and Draco argued.

            “You only gave her the blankets Hagrid made, because you didn’t like them. And you only gave her the rattiest hand-me-downs and the cheapest toddler clothes,” Harry said.

            “Well our boys were never going to wear all of those clothes, because we have so many, and they weren’t using Hagrid’s blankets. And why would I give away the good hand-me-downs, when Teddy and Lilac can still use them?” Draco asked.

            “The point is that the two of you did a good dead by helping out a family in need,” Hermione said.

            “Yes, we did,” Draco agreed.

            “And we’ve moved a Death Eater family in next door for the kids to play with,” Harry said.

            “The point of moving them in is to help Cecelia and the kids get away from their Death Eater influences,” Draco said.

            “‘E’s right, ‘Arry. We all must do our part to reach out to ze loosing zide in zis war,” Fleur said. “Otherwize our society will remain fractured and eet will only breed more war.”

            “Yeah, I guess,” Harry grudgingly admitted. If Ron was here he’d take Harry’s side.

            “And once you put the three little balls together, Auntie Ginny can charm the snowmen to dance,” Ginny said, making her freshly made miniature snowman start dancing around the room.

            “Red bad!” Scorp exclaimed, pointing at Ginny’s hair.

            “Bad!” Sev repeated. “No.”

            “No, no, no,” Teddy chanted.

            “Sorry Ginny, but I sort of have to tell Edward that red hair is bad, or look at a red haired baby on occasion. You can tell which choice won out,” Draco explained.

            “Draco, I told you to stop telling Teddy that!” Harry chastised. “It’s bad enough he started looking more like your family. I mean, just look at how pointy his chin is now,” Harry complained.

            “Harry, you do know that Edward is related to me, so if he looks like my family, it can’t be helped,” Draco said.

            “That chin is from your dad’s side, when he’s related on your mum’s,” Harry protested.

            “What can I say? He’s a metamorphmagus and there are more people with my chin in our house than any other chin. And I still think he might have my mother’s chin from his Black side, because it’s really not all that different,” Draco said. He knew perfectly well that the baby was looking more and more like him, Lucius, and Scorp every day, but he wasn’t going to admit that to Harry; not when Harry thought there was something wrong with it.

            “Harry, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, mate?” George asked.

            “No,” Harry replied.

            “It’s the pregnancy hormones,” Draco explained.

            “Is not,” Harry protested. He knew it was, but he didn’t feel like admitting it at the moment.

            “Hermione, do you think you could charm my hair pink for the day?” Ginny asked.

            “Yes, I’m sure I could,” Hermione answered.

            “There, it’s settled. Hermione will fix my hair and then there won’t be a problem,” Ginny said.

            Hermione and Ginny went upstairs and Fleur took their place with the boys. Scorp started crying without Hermione there to entertain him, so Draco pulled out Scorp’s toy broomstick and put the baby in it to zoom slowly around the room. The broomstick had a seat just like the jumper that prevented him from falling off. The broom was set to its lowest setting, because the boys were at the bottom of the recommended age for the toy, which meant the broomstick stayed low to the ground and only moved slowly. Scorp had had a balance problem with it at first, because of his uneven legs, but Lucius had charmed the broom to be heavier on the left to compensate for the lighter leg, and now it flew fine as long as it was Scorp in it.

            Once Sev saw Scorp on a broom, Sev wanted on a broom too, so Draco pulled out Sev’s broom and inserted the baby. Then Teddy wanted to join in the fun, so Draco pulled out the third broomstick. They hadn’t wanted Teddy to use the toy brooms at first, because he was too young, but somehow he’d gotten hold of the third broomstick and Harry turned around to find him zooming around the room. Harry had been certain that an elf was involved at first, because how else would a baby get the broomstick out of the closet and get into the seat, when Teddy couldn’t even walk yet? But elves cannot lie to their masters and all of the house elves swore that they weren’t involved. The incident was eventually chalked up to a case of accidental magic and after that, they let Teddy have his broom, because the baby must’ve wanted it really badly to have gotten it with accidental magic.

            The three babies zoomed around the Weasley living room until Sev escaped into the kitchen and snatched a biscuit off of a tray on the counter. It was one of the low sugar practically tasteless baby biscuits, so Narcissa let Sev have it, giving Scorp and Teddy baby biscuits too. Sev had just gotten another front tooth on the bottom left and was getting a sixth tooth on the bottom right, so he was chewing on anything he could get his hands on. Scorp had a pair of bumps on the bottom where his teeth were preparing to come in, but he hadn’t started the indicative whining, drooling, and gnawing yet, so it’d probably be another week or two before they started cutting. At least Teddy wasn’t currently teething.

            Soon after the babies got their cookies, the rest of the guests started arriving. Percy’s girlfriend Audrey and Ginny’s boyfriend Michael came. Lee stopped by to keep George company, since Angelina was on Auror duty and Lee didn’t want to leave George alone on his first Christmas without Fred. Charlie couldn’t make it, because he was needed at the dragon reserve and Ron was of course on Auror duty. That made sixteen adults and three babies. There were far too many to fit in the Weasley kitchen, which was why the Christmas feast was outside on the lawn under the tent with copious heating charms.

            The food wasn’t what the Malfoys were accustomed to having on Christmas, but it was edible and there was plenty of it. The Weasleys all made an effort to make Draco and his parents feel welcome, but he still felt sorely out of place surrounded by a sea of awful red hair. He was glad when the meal ended and they moved on to the exchange of gifts.

            The gifts the Malfoys had for each other were left back at the Manor to open when they got home, but they did bring small gifts for Molly, Arthur, Hermione, Ginny, and George Weasley. Molly had sweaters for all of them, including Andy, Narcissa, and Lucius. Lucius put his on with his best fake smile and pretended to love the gift, while secretly planning to burn it. Lucius couldn’t see how the Weasley woman could possibly think he’d want a yellow sweater with a bright red L knitted into the breast. It was the type of atrocity that only a very young child who doesn’t know any better might wear.

            Draco and Narcissa weren’t particularly fond of their sweaters, but they put them on along with their fake smiles. Harry loved his new sweater, especially because Molly had taken the time to add a wizard space charm to the stomach area, so when he wore it he could pretend he wasn’t a fat whale. It was a nice olive green that went well with his eyes. And Harry especially loved the three matching sweaters for the babies; they were all light blue with golden snitch designs knitted into the weave. There was a charm on the snitches, so that they appeared to zoom back and forth over the sweaters.

            Draco looked forward to naptime with a fervent glee that day, because it meant he could finally leave the awful Weasley house, the garish decorations, and all of the loud red-headed people.

            Harry wanted to stay and talk to Hermione some more, since he hardly ever got to see her now that she was back at Hogwarts, but then he started yawning and realized how tired he was. Thus he grudgingly went back to the Manor with Draco and the babies. Lucius and Narcissa went back too, but Andy stayed at the Weasleys until dinner.

            The Malfoys had a family dinner and then opened up presents under the tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I typed this without my index finger (I cut it and have 4 stitches) and now my finger hurts.  
> So, do you all agree with Harry or Draco about the charity work? Does a Death Eater’s wife deserve help getting away from him, or should she and the kids be left to suffer?


	60. Chapter60

            Harry’s first Valentine’s Day with Draco was marred by a letter from Aunt Petunia. It was a muggle style letter in an envelope with a postage stamp addressed to Harry Potter, but without a street address. It was delivered by a Ministry owl at breakfast one morning in early February. Harry was an adult now, he was the Savior of the Wizarding World, which meant he could do whatever he liked and that included throwing the letter in the fireplace without even reading it. What he didn’t factor in was Draco snatching the letter out of his hands before he could destroy it and reading it.

            Harry huffed and sat down on the sofa to wait for Draco to finish with the letter. He was now six and a half months pregnant and larger than he thought was possible. It turned out that he had miscalculated and he’d been wrong at Christmas when he thought he was a giant whale, because now he really was a giant whale and it was so much larger and made his life even more difficult; now he’d give money to go back to the size he’d been at Christmas.

            When Draco finished the letter, he looked up at Harry and asked, “Why were you going to burn this? It seems like a perfectly nice letter from some muggle named Petunia Dursley about some muggles named Dudley and Uncle Vernon, which implies that they’re related to you. Granted no one named Dudley can be anything but mentally challenged; I mean, why else would they have named him _that_? But we mustn’t throw away letters from the mothers of our mentally challenged relatives, because that’s bad form. What would your friend Hermione say if she knew you were attempting to shun your disabled relatives? If she has a problem with mistreatment of house elves then she’s bound to have a problem with mistreatment of retards.”

            “I don’t want to talk about it here,” Harry said, inclining his head at the nursery.

            Andy and Narcissa had just taken the boys into the nursery and they had Japhet and Clarity over too. Japhet was Cecelia Flint’s two-and-a-half-year-old son and Clarity was her five-month-old daughter. They watched Japhet and Clarity almost every morning now, because Cecelia had to teach pre-school to her oldest son, Hayden, who had just turned five. Unfortunately there was no public schooling available for magical children, so Cecelia’s only choices were to hire a tutor, send her son to private school, or teach him herself. She couldn’t afford the first two options and for the third, she needed someone to help out and watch her two little ones for a few hours every morning.

            Of course Cecelia coming over to the Manor meant that Harry had given her the secret. Hayden too had seen the secret, although he couldn’t properly read it. Harry had doubted that it would work but Cecelia spent the day with Hayden teaching him to recognize the letters in the secret. Once he’d been through each letter, the Manor appeared right in front of his eyes, so now the young child could floo over whenever he liked. Hayden being able to floo over on his own was important, because Cecelia had the baby and the toddler to floo over with and making the journey with all three kids at once was a major hassle.

            Harry hadn’t been too happy about having Cecelia’s kids around in the mornings, but it hadn’t been long before an emergency had occurred and Harry had taken the opportunity to officially give Molly the secret. Something had come up taking Andy away from the nursery that morning, while Lucius was away on business, and Draco was off at Hogwarts. It was just Harry and Narcissa and five babies, so when they needed help, Harry firecalled Molly, passed her the secret, asked her to come over right away to help, and pretended like Molly had never been to the Manor before. Molly still wasn’t welcome over all of the time, but the Malfoys at least conceded that in times of emergencies, she could be called.

            “Alright, come on, we’ll do this in the bedroom,” Draco said, walking into their bedroom and casting an extra silencing charm on the door.

            Harry walked into the bedroom, where he flopped down on the bed with a put upon huff.

            “So, your relatives; I assume these are the muggles you lived with all those years?” Draco asked.

            “Yeah,” Harry answered.

            “I know you don’t like them, Harry, but have you considered what it cost your aunt to swallow her pride and write you this letter? I can tell you how hard it was for Mother to reach out to Aunt Andy after all of those years of estrangement and make amends,” Draco said.

            “Look, I don’t really care. They were awful to me and treated me like vermin growing up. I don’t want to see or even write to them ever again. We don’t have the tight-knit family you do. When I said goodbye to them two summers ago, I said it forever.”

            “Don’t you want to know how they are? Just being related to you during this war had to have made them a target. What if the Dark Lord had his Death Eaters track them down and torture them for information?”

            “They wouldn’t be able to find them; they were in hiding under Order protection.”

            “Just like you were in hiding. Do you know how many Order safe houses were broken into and destroyed? Being under Order protection was like having a giant hex me sign on their backs. It’s a wonder any muggles came out alive, yeah?”

            “It would serve them right if they didn’t.” Harry left it unsaid that he wished they hadn’t come out of it alive. Maybe not Dudley, because he’d been alright at the end, but Harry’s miserable aunt and uncle for sure.

            “Do you really mean that? You’re normally such a kind and loving person, Harry. I can’t believe that you’d mean that.”

            “Well I do.”

            “Do you want to tell me why? What did they do to you? You never told me.”

            “You’d probably take off and kill them all if I did.”

            “I couldn’t, not even a muggle. I’d want to do it, because they’ve obviously hurt you a great deal, but I’ve never been able to kill. How about I promise not to hex them and you tell me what they did?”

            “Alright, but you’re not going to like it.”

            “I already don’t.”

            “They treated me like a freak growing up. They hated magic; it was a bad word to them and every time I accidentally did a bit of it, I was punished. I lived in the cupboard under the stairs until I was eleven when they gave me Dudley’s second bedroom. They used to lock me up and starve me if I was bad.”

            Draco looked at Harry and Harry could see the hurt in his eyes and the disbelief written on his face. Draco bent down in front of Harry and carefully wrapped a pair of comforting arms around him.

            “Alright, that’s pretty awful. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Why would Dumbledore even leave you with those people?”

            “It was the only way to keep me safe from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. I was protected as long as I lived under the same roof as my mother’s blood.”

            “Well that sucks troll dung. Like I said, it’s horrible you had to go through that and I wish that I could go back in time and save you from them, but I can’t.”

            “I know.”

            “You know what Father always tells me in situations where someone else has gotten the best of me?”

            “No.”

            “He tells me to go back and rub their noses in my success. Shove it up their arses that I’m a rich powerful wizard and it doesn’t matter how anyone tries to hold me back; I’m still a Malfoy and that means something, because I say it does. Then hex them so badly they never try to best me again. Wouldn’t you like to see your aunt and uncle’s faces when you show up with me on your arm, married to Lord Malfoy. They don’t know shite about our world, so you can make up anything you like about us and shove their noses in it. Plus we have three beautiful children with a fourth one on the way; you could show off, yeah?”

            “That does sound like fun. They don’t even know male pregnancy is possible. If I show up on their doorstep dressed in my paternity robes and swollen up like a balloon, my aunt will probably faint.”

            “I’ll have a house elf introduce us as Lord and Savior Malfoy, like they call us in the papers.” Harry laughed and Draco chuckled.

            “They’d hate that. They’d hate the house elf and that I’d married a rich Lord. But it’d be more fun if the neighbors saw and that isn’t possible if we show up with a house elf.”

            “Alright, then we’ll hire a human servant. Or better yet, get George Weasley to fill in for the day; I bet he’d be able to come up with all kinds of ways to torment magic hating muggles without actually hurting one.”

            “Fred and George fed Dudley ton-tongue toffee once before fourth year. It was hilarious.”

            “See, George will be perfect then. And he won’t even have to do anything, because the muggles will be shitting their pants just remembering what he did with the toffees.”

            “Yeah.”

            “So how about I write your aunt back and set up a little meeting? She does have a floo connection, yeah?”

            “Um no, and they block up their fireplace too, so you can’t have them connected either.”

            “That sucks. Is there somewhere nearby we can floo from?”

            “We could probably get the floo connected to Mrs. Figg’s house. She’s a squib that lives in the neighborhood.”

            “Alright, I’ll have it arranged. I think it’d be best to go before Valentine’s Day, so we can rub it in their faces how ridiculously in love we are. What do you think of Saturday the thirteenth?”

            “Yeah, I guess.”

            “Excellent. I’ll go arrange it. You should go pamper yourself; Mother and Aunt Andy have the children covered for the time being.”

            “No, I shouldn’t leave them with five babies. I’ll pamper myself after Cecelia comes and gets her two.”

            “Alright. Have a good day. I’m gonna make these arrangements before I floo over to Hogwarts.” Draco said before giving Harry a quick, but intense snog.

 

* * *

 

 

            Saturday the thirteenth arrived quicker than Harry would’ve liked. He didn’t feel ready to see his relatives again and Draco’s plan no longer seemed like such a good idea. But he had agreed, Draco wouldn’t be deterred, and the Dursleys were waiting for them. And so against Harry’s better judgment, he got dressed in the expensive new paternity robes Draco had bought him to accentuate his ginormous stomach, cast a grooming charm on his hair, and waddled out to the sitting room where Draco and the babies were waiting for him.

            Draco was wearing the light grey paternity robes Harry had gotten for him and he had Scorp and Teddy strapped into the infant carseats hooked onto the top of the twin stroller. Scorp was past the twelve months in age the infant carseat normally recommended as the maximum age, but he was far under the maximum weight and just barely approaching the maximum height, so they figured he could get one more use out of the carseat; it was always good having a carseat in the muggle world. Sev’s carseat was shrunken and stored with the nappy bag in the basket of the stroller.

            Sev was climbing up the back of the sofa trying to reach one of the portraits on the wall. Draco was watching the toddler, but waiting until Harry actually reached the fireplace to call Sev back over. Harry looked at what the babies were wearing and laughed.

            “What’s so funny?” Draco asked.

            “My aunt and uncle are gonna hate us for this,” Harry said, pointing to Sev in his new dark purple baby dress robes with silver trim and silver twinkling stars. Scorp’s robes were the same, except with gold trim and stars and Teddy’s had bronze trim and stars. The babies had been given the matching outfits at the twins’ birthday party.

            “What’s wrong with what they’re wearing? These are the nicest clothes they have,” Draco protested, failing to see what was so humorous.

            “Nothing’s wrong with them; they’re just so obviously not muggle it’s funny. Don’t worry, I approve.”

            “Good and I’m glad we amuse you. Now get your arse through this floo.”

            “Arse!” Scorp repeated.

            “Er, butt. Get your butt through this floo,” Draco corrected. “Scorp, Father isn’t supposed to say arse. It’s a bad word.”

            “Bad word!” Scorp repeated and Sev came running over.

            “Badss wordsssss?” Sev asked.

            “Yes Sev, arse is a bad word and it’s very naughty of Father to have said it. I’m very sorry,” Draco apologized.

            “Sor-riessss?” Sev asked.

            “Sorry,” Scorp confirmed.

            “No!” Teddy contributed. No generally worked well as something to say to anything and he was now in the no stage.

            “Yes,” Scorp rebutted. Draco had been so proud when one of his children had finally learned to say yes.

            “Alright, I’m going,” Harry said and flooed to Mrs. Figg’s house.

            Mrs. Figg’s house was full of cats and smelled like cabbage, which meant it was just the same as Harry had always remembered it. Draco came through the floo pushing the twin stroller with one hand and holding Sev’s hand with the other, shortly after Harry. Harry introduced Draco and the children to Mrs. Figg and then she led them all out to her car. Her car wasn’t big enough to hold all of them, but it was big enough to carry Harry and Sev; Draco would walk with the stroller. It took a while for Draco to figure out how to get Sev’s carseat strapped in tightly, since he had never done it before. Harry offered to help, but at seven months pregnant he was more of a hindrance than a help, so Draco refused.

            They were taking Mrs. Figg’s car instead of hiring a car for the day and getting George to chauffeur them around, because George couldn’t take the time away from the joke shop on such a busy weekend. He had a whole line of love potions and other Valentine’s Day themed merchandise that was flying off the shelves. So although George had wanted to come, he’d declined.

            Eventually Draco got the carseat in and then strapped Sev into it. Sev didn’t want to go in and said, “No! Walk!”

            “No Sev, you have to sit. Father needs you to go with Daddy and protect him. Can you protect Daddy for me?” Draco asked, pushing Sev back down into the seat.

            “Po-essssssssss Da Da?” Sev asked.

            “Yes, you’re a big boy now and I need you to protect Daddy,” Draco repeated, finally getting Sev strapped in.

            “No! No, no, no, no, no!!!” Sev screamed with a hiss as Draco closed the door on the baby.

            “Sev, you’re going with me, little man. We’ll be there in a minute if you’ll just calm down,” Harry said looking at the lawn and hoping there weren’t any snakes nearby. Sev was now unleashing a string of hisses and Harry had no way of knowing what the baby was saying. Sev could just be saying no in parseltongue, or he could be calling for a snake to come rescue him from the atrocity of being forced to sit down.

            Mrs. Figg turned on the car and took off down the road with Sev crying and hissing the whole way. Draco followed after the car with the stroller. He lost sight of the car when it turned, but he made the same turn and then used a point-me spell to determine his next turn. This would’ve been easier if Harry wasn’t too pregnant to walk, but Harry was, so Draco made do.

            By the time Draco arrived at Number four Privet Drive, Mrs. Figg already had Sev out of the car and running on the Dursley’s lawn, while Harry was slowly walking towards the door. Draco checked out Harry’s arse as he came up behind his husband with the stroller and called out to Sev, “Oi Sev! Did you protect Daddy, Sev?”

            “No!” Sev answered.

            “Well that’s entirely inappropriate for a young Malfoy. I will expect you to do better next time, young man,” Draco replied.

            “Ed-ee?” Scorp asked from the stroller, pointing at Teddy.

            “Yes Scorp? What about Edward?” Draco asked.

            “Ed-ee,” Scorp repeated.

            “Oh, I see, you’re protecting Edward for me, is that right?” Draco asked.

            “Yes,” Scorp answered.

            “Good boy, Scorp! Now that’s what I expect to hear from a proper young Malfoy. Sev, did you hear what Scorp said?” Draco asked, wondering when Harry was going to knock on the door already, because Harry had just been standing there for a minute now.

            “No!” Sev exclaimed, running back towards the door, with old Mrs. Figg trailing behind him.

            “Harry, why aren’t you knocking?” Draco asked.

            “This was a bad idea! We should just go,” Harry answered.

            “No, we are not going. We came all this way and I for one intend to meet your relatives,” Draco said. He reached around Harry to knock, but Harry moved and blocked Draco’s reach.

            “No, I don’t want to do this,” Harry hissed.

            “But Harry, I’ve never met a muggle before. If you don’t let me meet them, I’m gonna assume my grandmother was right and that they _do_ eat wizarding children. Is that why you don’t want us to meet them? Because you’re worried they’ll eat the children?” Draco asked, keeping a straight face throughout his manipulations. He was about ninety-nine percent certain his grandmother was wrong about muggles eating children.

            “No and muggles don’t eat children! Why would Druella say such an awful thing?” Harry asked just as the door opened and revealed Dudley.

            “Harry, is that you?” Dudley asked.

            “Yeah Dudley, it’s me,” Harry admitted and started through the door.

            “Come here, Sev!” Draco called. Sev ran over and took Draco’s hand, going through the door with Draco and the stroller. “Hello, I’m Harry’s husband, Lord Draco Malfoy. These are our three children; Severus is the blond one, Scorpius is the raven haired one, and Edward is the green haired one.”

            “Right…” Dudley replied, staring at Teddy’s green hair, which changed to orange right before his eyes.

            “Correction, Edward is the orange haired one,” Draco said as Harry flopped down on the sofa. “Edward, you know Father doesn’t like orange. Please stick to colors between yellow and purple.”

            “Orn bad!” Scorp exclaimed.

            “Ornsssss bad!” Sev echoed from where he was standing in the middle of the room, looking around at all of the things he could get into.

            “No, no, no,” Teddy agreed and changed his hair to purple.

            “Great, thank you Edward,” Draco said.

            “Are your parents here?” Harry asked.

            “Yeah. Mum! Dad! Harry’s here,” Dudley called. “Can the little one really just change his hair color at a whim?”

            Harry nodded and Dudley looked impressed. Petunia came in from the kitchen and Vernon came pounding down the stairs. Draco introduced himself and the children.

            Petunia took Draco’s hand and said, “Nice to meet you. I’m Petunia Dursley and this is my husband Vernon. I believe you’ve met our son Dudders.”

            “Yes, just now actually. I hope you don’t mind Severus running around; he’s in the getting into everything and refusing to sit still phase,” Draco replied.

            “Oh, it’s no problem. Have a seat and I’ll get the tea,” Petunia said, before turning and going back into the kitchen.

            Draco sat down next to Harry and put his hand lovingly on top of Harry’s belly.

            Vernon’s eyes went wide as he took in the sight of Harry’s extended stomach. Vernon pointed one flabby finger at Harry and asked, “What is that, boy?”

            “Oh this here?” Harry asked, putting his hand on his stomach and entwining his fingers with Draco’s.

            “Yes, that,” Vernon confirmed.

            “I’m pregnant,” Harry answered with a very wide smile. He quite enjoyed the sight of Uncle Vernon turning bright red.

            “Isn’t it wonderful? A little girl to go with our three boys,” Draco added.

            “Petunia! Come in here, Harry’s being all…” Vernon trailed off.

            “I think it’s wonderful, Harry, but how did you do it? Were you pregnant with the other three too?” Dudley asked.

            “No, Draco was pregnant with the twins and we adopted Teddy,” Harry answered.

            “You! What?” Vernon sputtered.

            Petunia came in with a tray of tea and biscuits, setting it down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “What is it, Vernon? Didn’t we agree to be civil to Harry and his family?” Petunia asked Vernon.

            “Yes, but that was before I knew what he was up to!” Vernon accused with a red blotchy face.

            “Sev, we don’t touch muggle things,” Draco said, getting up and pulling a long black box out of Sev’s hands. He put the spit soaked thing up out of Sev’s reach, before returning to the sofa.

            “I wouldn’t say I’m currently up to anything. I was up to getting buggered by my husband on my birthday, but that was seven months ago,” Harry said.

            Petunia turned to Harry and took in Harry’s belly for the first time. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide.

            “Harry’s pregnant Mum and I think it’s great.” Dudley said. “Harry, do you want some help taking the other two out of the pram?”

            “I was just going to leave them in there as long as they’re happy,” Draco said. He had his hands full watching Sev, getting up every few minutes to pull Sev away from a row of glass figurines. Besides, Scorp and Teddy had toy bars that they were playing with, which seemed to be keeping them entertained.

            “It hardly seems fair that the blond one is allowed to run around when the other one is locked up,” Dudley said.

            “Oh Scorpius can’t walk. He can’t even crawl; he’s crippled,” Draco explained. He wanted so much to blame Ron in that moment, especially because he was fairly certain Ron would never have a conversation with this muggle. But Harry was there, and for Harry’s sake, he kept his mouth shut.

            “Oh my,” said Petunia.

            “How?” asked Dudley.

            “My friend Ronald Weasley did it,” supplied Harry. He wasn’t under any contract and so was free to say whatever he wanted. They’d asked and it was the truth, so he said it, knowing Draco wouldn’t. It made his chest swell with pride that Draco hadn’t said and had kept his mouth shut.

            “Weasley? As in…?” Vernon asked.

            “Yes, that Weasley. He hit Draco in the stomach when he was pregnant and as a result, Scorp has a bum leg,” Harry added.

            “And Scorp is fine in the stroller, aren’t you Scorp?” Draco asked his son.

            Scorp looked up at Draco and answered, “Na-eeee!”

            “Seriously Scorp, you had to soil yourself in the muggles’ house? I suppose I’ll have to change it then,” Draco replied, getting out the nappy bag from the basket under the stroller. “Is it alright if I do it here, or do you have another room I could use?”

            Harry looked at his aunt expectantly, wondering where the woman might take a wizard to change a nappy in the neat and proper muggle house. It really was between the living room and going upstairs, because the dining room and kitchen wouldn’t work and those were the only rooms downstairs. Petunia appeared to think about it for a minute, before answering, “I guess down here is alright, although I could take you up to Harry’s old bedroom if you’d like.”

            While Petunia thought, Draco got Scorp out of the stroller. “No, right here is good,” Draco said, pulling out a mat and a fresh nappy.

            Then Draco laid Scorp down, pulling the dress robes up, and unfastening the pins that held the soiled nappy in place. When Draco opened the nappy up, Petunia let out a gasp of surprise, drawing Vernon and Dudley’s attention too.

            “Oi Harry, you didn’t tell me they were perves; I would’ve gone upstairs,” Draco said, covering Scorp’s bits with the clean nappy. He did it quickly, to block the muggles from looking, and didn’t have it on at all properly. Instead he rummaged in the nappy bag for another clean nappy to put on Scorp, using the first as cover.

            “I didn’t know. They’ve never been perves before,” Harry replied.

            “Um Harry, your son’s, you know, is as big as mine. And he’s just a baby!” Dudley exclaimed.

            Draco eyed Dudley critically. His initial impression from Petunia’s letter was that Dudley was mentally retarded, but up until now, the young man had seemed to just be of the regular sort of slow; about equal in intelligence to Greg. But now Draco was picturing a grown man with a penis as small as a baby’s. “I feel very sorry for your girlfriend. I can’t imagine she’s seen something so small and kept you around. I suggest giving her an enormous engagement ring, before showing her. Probably best to wait ‘til the wedding night to reveal something like that.”

            Harry snickered, Petunia let out a gasp of shock, and Vernon bellowed, “Now see here! Don’t talk about my son in my house like that! There’s nothing wrong with us; it’s you that are the freaks!”

            “I’m the freak? I’m not the perve that was checking out the baby’s bits. Although if your whole family is hung like an elf, I’m starting to see where Harry gets it from, but even Harry isn’t as small as a baby,” Draco said.

            “Draco, um, muggles are sort of smaller than wizards in that regard,” Harry said, trying to be helpful.

            “Harry, does your husband really think you’re, um, small? You’re like the biggest I’ve ever seen,” Dudley said.

            “Seriously? Harry’s the biggest you’ve ever seen? If he’d been any smaller, I might not’ve married him, on the grounds of me being gay and wanting someone with a good prick.” By now Draco had the new nappy on Scorp and was just pulling Scorp’s robes down. He sat Scorp up on the floor and put everything away in the stroller.

            “Yeah,” Dudley confirmed.

            “I’m the only wizard Dudley’s ever seen,” Harry supplied.

            “Right, well shall we just have tea?” Petunia asked, trying to move this meeting back on track.

            “Thank you, I’d love some tea,” Draco answered, putting Scorp back into the stroller to play with his toy bar.

            Petunia poured the tea for all of the adults and said, “I have some milk in the kitchen, if you’d like some for the boys.”

            “No thanks, I’m breast feeding still,” Draco answered.

            Harry snickered at the looks of his aunt and uncle’s faces, bringing his hand to his face to hide his amusement as best he could. Draco didn’t laugh, but simply reached out and took his tea from the tray, even though he hated tea.

            “Way to go, Harry! I think you’ve just about given both of them heart attacks with all your freakishness,” Dudley complemented jovially with a wide grin. He was very appreciative of the hilarity of the situation.

            “Thanks Dudley, I do try,” Harry replied, before bursting out with laughter. Dudley laughed too. “So what have you been up to Dudley?”

            “Nothing much. I started back at Smelting’s this year. I wasn’t able to keep up with my studies last year, but I went to summer school and I’m taking an extra class this year, so I’m on track to graduate. Mum and Dad picked me up for the weekend for this. It’s good for me, because I’ve a girlfriend and now I get to see her for Valentine’s Day,” Dudley said.

            “That’s great! Who?”

            “Cassidy Howsham. She lives a few blocks down. Blond hair, blue eyes; she went to primary school with us,” Dudley answered.

            Harry didn’t remember her. “Good for you Dudley,” he said.

            “So when did you get married?” Dudley asked.

            “Two years ago. Draco was actually already pregnant with the twins the last time I saw you,” Harry answered.

            “You couldn’t be any more _abnormal_ if you tried,” Vernon said scathingly. “What would the neighbors think if they knew you were gay?”

            “Don’t know, but you’ll have to tell me when you ask them. A couple of them came out to stare at me when I was waddling from the car to the house,” Harry exaggerated. He’d seen a few curtains ruffle, indicating that the nosey neighbors had peaked out at him, but no one had come out.

            “Harry! How could you? And dressed like that?” Petunia asked.

            “Oi, you’re the one who wrote me and invited us over for tea,” Harry retorted.

            “Yes, well, I didn’t know you were so pregnant. How is that even possible?” Petunia asked.

            “Magic,” Harry answered with a huge grin and trying not to laugh.

            “I for one was very happy to find out Harry’s gay. It really helped make our mutual attraction so much more understandable, don’t you think?” Draco asked.

            Dudley nodded.

            “It’s not normal,” Petunia said.

            “That’s very rude of you,” Draco said. “See boys, I hope you remember this lesson: muggles are rude.” He set his tea cup back on the tray, while Scorp repeated back the vowel sounds Draco had just said. The light caught on Draco’s diamond ring as he set the teacup down, and he noticed Mrs. Dursley eyeing it. “Oh, did you want to see? Harry gave them to me.” Draco held out his hand with the three rings towards Mrs. Dursley. He had his Malfoy ring on his other hand and all three of Harry’s rings on his left hand.

            “Oh my, these look very expensive,” Petunia said.

            “They are expensive. When you’re husband’s loaded, you sort of have to get him an expensive wedding ring.” Petunia looked at Harry with a surprised look, so Harry continued, “Draco did introduce himself as Lord Malfoy, didn’t he? He’s really a Lord and the Malfoys are exceedingly rich.”

            “Way to go Harry! I can’t believe you landed a rich Lord for a husband!” Dudley exclaimed. “How did you manage that?”

            “I knocked him up and then he had no choice in the matter,” Harry answered.

            “My father was quite upset about it at first, but he got over it once he realized what a politically advantageous move it is to have the Savior of the Wizarding World marry into the family,” Draco said.

            “How did you do that? Save the Wizarding World, I mean. They tried to tell us last year, but I didn’t really understand,” Dudley said.

            Harry went into a very short description of the final battle, which Dudley regularly interrupted with shouts of, “No way!” “Not uh!” and “That is _so_ cool.”

            When Harry was finished, Draco said, “Well it was nice meeting you and thank you for the tea, but we really must be going. I have to buy Harry a new Rolex to show him how much I appreciate him being pregnant with my child and all. Nothing but the best for my husband for Valentine’s Day, yeah?” Rolex was actually a brand of wizarding watch that Lucius imported to the muggle world for sell, so he knew it was a name that would be recognizable by Harry’s muggle relatives, even if he wouldn’t ever have to buy one; his father could get them for him at a discount.

            “Yes, he’s always spoiling me,” Harry confirmed and held out his wrist to show off the ouroboros bracelet. “He got me this bracelet for my birthday.”

            Petunia reached out to touch it, but Draco stopped her. “Don’t touch it please. It’s an old family heirloom filled with dark magic; it’ll burn you if you try to touch it,” Draco exaggerated. The bracelet was supposed to be safe for anyone to touch as long as it was on Harry’s wrist, but with Draco’s ancestors, it was a distinct possibility that there was an anti-muggle curse on the thing. It was better not to risk it and it provided the extra bonus of freaking Harry’s muggle relatives out a bit.

            Petunia’s face blanched, all color draining away.

            “I won’t have dark magic in my house!” Vernon bellowed, his face turning from red to purple.

            “Not even very valuable dark magic?” Draco asked with a smirk.

            “No, certainly not!” Vernon replied.

            “Well we were just going anyway. Come along Sev,” Draco said.

            “No!” Sev exclaimed, trying to reach a china plate that was on display in the entertainment center.

            “Yes Sev, you don’t want to stay with the crazy muggles, do you?” Draco asked.

            “ea-eessss ma-elsssss?” Sev asked with a hiss.

            “Yes, crazy muggles Sev. Now come along,” Draco said.

            This time Sev listened and ran back to Draco, who took hold of the little hand and led him outside, pushing the stroller. Harry followed behind and slowly walked to the car while Draco strapped Sev into the carseat. “Now protect Daddy this time Sev,” Draco ordered, closing the door.

            Sev started crying and Harry got into the car. Mrs. Figg, who had been visiting one of the Dursley’s neighbors, came back and drove Harry and Sev back to her house, while Draco set back off on foot, pushing the stroller.

            “You’re not going to walk back, are you?” Petunia asked Draco. Having a wizard walking in her neighborhood after being seen at her house was just about the worst thing she could imagine.

            “Actually, I was. It’s not that far, really. Harry only couldn’t make it on account of him being so far up the duff and all,” Draco replied.

            “Nonsense, I’ll drive you,” Petunia said, taking her keys Vernon was handing to her.

            “Honestly I think it’ll take longer to strap the carseats into the car than it will take to walk. It took me fifteen minutes to get Sev’s carseat into Madam Figg’s car,” Draco replied.

            “I can do it in a minute. Here, I’ll show you,” Petunia said, taking one of the carseats complete with baby off of the stroller. It’d been years since she’d had a baby, but she had just watched her friend’s baby a few months ago. Sure enough, she had both babies locked in tight in just over a minute.

            Draco folded down the stroller, which Petunia put into the car, and then they got into the car. “I’ve only ridden in a car a few times before,” Draco admitted, struggling to get the muggle seatbelt to buckle.

            “Here, I’ll do it,” Petunia said, reaching over to fasten the safety belt for Draco.

            Once Draco was in, Petunia started the car and took off down the road. “Where to?” she asked.

            “Madam Figg’s house, please. We’ll floo home from there.”

            “Floo?” Petunia asked, although she didn’t really want to know.

            “Yes, travel by fireplace flue. It’d really be much easier to visit if you got your fireplace hooked up to the floo network.”

            “I’m glad you’re willing to come again; I didn’t think you would be. It didn’t go as well as I would’ve liked.”

            “I’m not certain I’ll be able to convince Harry to come again. My father always told me that muggles were rude and had no class. I wasn’t really expecting any different, although I didn’t know that muggles are perves and hung like elves. It’s nice though knowing a muggle to visit, so that I can teach the boys about your culture. I don’t have any muggle relatives.” Next time Draco got a chance to see his friends, he was going to have to pass along this new bit of information about muggles.

            “Surely you must have some if you go back far enough.”

            “Our closest living muggle relatives are the royal family. One of my third cousins, twice removed, was a squib and married in.”

            “You don’t say?””

            “Oh yes, the Malfoy family has been marrying our squibs into the royal family for centuries,” Draco said as the car pulled up to Mrs. Figg’s house. Sev and Mrs. Figg were already running around the yard and Harry was walking slowly towards the door.

            “Wow,” Petunia replied, getting out of the car and getting out the stroller, before showing Draco how to take the carseats out.

            By the time Draco and the stroller were ready to go again, Harry was already at the door. “Bye Harry. I’m sorry things didn’t go more smoothly and I hope to see you again sometime,” Petunia said.

            “Bye. I’m not so sure we’ll be back. You really are the worst sort of muggle,” Harry said, before turning and going into Mrs. Figg’s house.

            “Bye again,” Draco said, before following after Harry. “Come now Harry; aren’t all muggles like that?”

            “No. Most muggles aren’t nearly so awful,” Harry answered.

            “Your cousin didn’t seem that bad,” Draco replied.

            “Yeah, well Dudley and I sort of came to an understanding. He’s alright, I guess.”

            “Ae-ee ma-elsss,” Sev said, running through Mrs. Figg’s house, chasing a cat.

            “Yes Sev, crazy muggles. Your relatives are very educational at least,” Draco said.

            Harry laughed and continued on towards the floo. It was another five minutes before he made it and when he did, he was very relieved to be back home at the Manor. He’d make Draco make this up to him on Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Draco has a very romantic date planned for them at the Villa and promised lots of sex, which was good, because Harry was very horny these days with his rampaging hormones.

            They were going to the Villa instead of Grimmauld Place, because Harry had offered Grimmauld Place to Hannah Abbott for her charity work. The Abbott family had started up a charity to benefit war orphans and widows, which Harry had donated a bit of money to after Christmas. If Draco’s family was helping Cecelia Flint and her children, then he wanted to help his side equally and surprisingly enough, Draco wasn’t opposed.

            In the days following the holidays, Harry’s hormones had calmed down and he’d realized that his little tantrum was rather uncalled for. Now he agreed that getting the Flint children away from their Death Eater relatives and incorporating them into their new society was necessary after the war. So he didn’t begrudge Draco’s charity project any longer, but it did get him thinking about how he could help his own side, which was why he looked up Hannah Abbott.

            Harry gave Hannah the monetary donation first; not a huge one, but a few hundred galleons that Draco agreed they could spare. Then he got to thinking that Grimmauld Place was sitting mostly unused and that maybe there was some use Hannah could make of it. Draco would never agree to outright giving the property away, but he did agree that it could be rented or leased to a charity free of charge for the next decade or so. Thus Harry had offered it and she’d agreed to turn it into sort of a halfway home for struggling widows and small families who were homeless. Each room would be given to a different family, providing cramped living conditions, but it was better than being homeless. It made Harry feel good that he was finally doing something charitable to contribute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next is Easter. Harry is finally going to meet all of Draco’s relatives.  
> By the way, this story is winding down. There are still a few more loose ends to tie up, a baby to be born, and a climax to figure out, but I think Harry and Draco have finally found their groove and are in line for their happily ever after.


	61. Chapter61

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting is back! Woohoo! The formatting is back! For now at least. I did nothing different to make it come back.

            Draco did end up getting Harry a Rolex for Valentine’s Day. It was the wizarding version complete with a standard anti-theft charm and a setting that told him where his children and husband were, like Molly Weasley’s clock back at the Burrow. Harry didn’t want to wear the Rolex, because it was far too ostentatious and he already had the watch Molly had given him for his seventeenth birthday. Draco, however, insisted Harry wear the new watch; hand-me-down watches weren’t befitting a Malfoy.

            Draco was somewhat miffed that Harry hadn’t bothered to get him a present, but then Harry couldn’t exactly go shopping these days. Still, Harry could have asked Narcissa to go for him and he didn’t. But the lack of a present was made up for by all of the sex. Harry had gone for hours, practically insatiable with his raging hormones and Draco had loved it.

            Harry had thought before that he couldn’t possibly get any bigger and he thought it again on Valentine’s Day when he looked down and couldn’t even see his cock, but when Easter came, he was even bigger still. He was almost nine months pregnant and by his account, far too far along to make it to Easter dinner, especially because the baby was crushing his lungs making it painful to breathe. But then Easter dinner was held at the Manor, so it was really hard for him to get out of it; it was just downstairs in the drawing room. They couldn’t have it in the dining room, because the dining room was not large enough for the crowd that came.

            “Don’t you want to meet my father’s family? The crowd that’s building downstairs puts the Weasley family to shame,” Draco said, trying to entice Harry into coming down.

            “How is that even possible with the fidelius? I’m the secret keeper and I didn’t give them the secret,” Harry said.

            “You wrote down the address for Cecelia and Hayden and my father has been keeping hold of it ever since. This morning he stood outside of the guesthouse and let all of our relatives read the scrap of paper.”

            “That defeats the purpose of the fidelius. Your dad’s family is the very type of people we don’t want in here; they’re all a bunch of Death Eaters.”

            “No they’re not. And if you think that, shouldn’t you get off your arse and capture all the Death Eaters that are gathering downstairs? Don’t you want to be a good little Auror and single handedly bring in all of the remaining fugitives as they peacefully sit down to Easter dinner in our drawing room?”

            “Can’t; far too fat to make it down the stairs. The elves will bring me dinner up here,” Harry said. The elves had been bringing him meals up to the second floor for two weeks now. He wasn’t much use helping out with the babies anymore either, which was why Molly Weasley was now coming over to help every Tuesday through Friday morning, when Draco was away and they had Cecelia’s extra two children to care for. Harry was vaguely interested in the prospect of discovering Death Eaters in his own house, but he didn’t really think Draco and Lucius had invited Death Eaters over for Easter dinner.

            “You can apparate downstairs,” Draco countered.

            “Yes, but I don’t remember you mentioning anything about Easter when you told me about how we were splitting up the holidays. I got Christmas at the Weasleys, yes, but you’ve had Samhain at the Rosier’s and we’re supposed to have Beltane with the Crabbe’s. Only last week did you mention that we’re having Easter with your dad’s relatives.”

            “Yes, well we’re having it here at the Manor, so it didn’t warrant mentioning. Besides, we just visited your relatives before Valentine’s day and I didn’t tell you about that either.”

            “But that was your idea and you made me go. I didn’t want to.”

            “Then next year use your Valentine’s day visit with relatives to not visit with your relatives, but I’m using Easter to introduce you to mine. Come on, let’s go.”

            “I hate your drawing room. It reminds me of when your aunt tortured Hermione there.”

            “All the more reason to come down and make new memories. I’ll have you know my father and his second cousin got into a huge spat in that drawing room one Easter when I was little; that’s what I’m choosing to remember about the drawing room today. Father and Cantankerus Nott Junior are downstairs right now; don’t you want to find out what happens?” Draco asked. Cantankerus Nott Junior was Lucius’ second cousin and also Theo Nott’s grandfather. Theo’s father died during this war and his mother died during the last war, so his grandfather was all of the family he had left.

            “They’re all a bunch of Death Eaters.”

            “No, the Death Eaters in the family are all dead. There were a lot more relatives here fifth year for Easter.” Draco looked down forlornly.

            “Oh, I’m sorry. You’ve lost a lot of family, haven’t you?” Harry asked concerned.

            “Yes. It’d be a lot easier to get through this day if I had my husband at my side,” Draco manipulated.

            Harry fell for it and apparated downstairs, where he found a great many people crowding the drawing room. He recognized Theo Nott, Graham Montague, Greg Goyle, and Greg’s  family. He knew Greg’s mum Elizabeth from his near death experience in the forbidden forest and Greg’s two little sisters from the twins’ birthday party.

            Harry was surprised to see Zacharias and Sally Smith and Stephen Cornfoot from Hogwarts there as well. They were standing in a group and talking with three younger kids Harry recognized as being from the younger years at Hogwarts. He thought the girl’s last name was Cornfoot and that she would be a third or fourth year now; her first name was something like Sabrina, like Sabirah, Sabiya, or Sabina, but not actually Sabrina. There were two blond boys, one of which Harry thought was a fifth year named Cyneric Smith. The other he wasn’t sure of the name, but looked almost identical to how Zacharias had looked around the age of twelve and was likely Zacharias’s little brother.

            “What are they doing here?” Harry asked Draco, indicating Zacharias, Sally, and Stephen, who were all in Harry and Draco’s year at Hogwarts.

            “They’re related, just like everyone else in this room. It’s unfortunate really that we don’t have any closer relatives on the Malfoy side, but all of these people collectively are my father’s closest relatives. They’re all descendent from my great grandfather Septimus’ six older sisters,” Draco answered, before starting to introduce Harry to all of the Malfoy relatives.

            There were the Notts, the Montagues, and the Goyles, but also the Smiths, Cornfoots, Craggys, Vanitys, Burkes, Rowles, and Shafiqs. And then there were the Lestranges. “This is Blanche Lestrange, her daughter-in-law Davida, her granddaughters Lyra and Myra, her grandson Cyril, and her great grandson Meldryk. Gawen Gordon here is Lyra’s husband, Meldryk’s father, and Davida’s little brother,” Draco said. Although Lyra was described as the granddaughter, she looked to be around the same age as Davida, the daughter-in-law, while Meldryk, the great grandson, was between Myra and Cyril in age.

            “It’s nice to meet you.” Harry was lying of course, because he wasn’t pleased to meet the Lestrange family at all. Lyra in fact looked like the spitting image of Bellatrix, except for that she was younger, had brown hair instead of black, and didn’t have Bellatrix’s signature crazy look about her. Once they had moved clear of the Lestranges, he asked, “Draco, what are the Lestranges doing here? I thought Bellatrix was related through your mum’s side.”

            “Bellatrix is my mother’s sister, but her husband is related to my father’s family. And Blanche and Lyra hated Bellatrix, so don’t mention her around the Lestranges please.”

            “Is it too much to hope that they hated Rodolphus and his brother too?”

            “Yes, it is. Rodolphus and Rabastan are Blanche’s sons and she loves them. And Davida is married to Rabastan. I feel sorry for Davida. You do know she was still pregnant with Cyril when Rabastan was captured and Myra is only two and a half.”

            “Serves her right for staying married to a Death Eater, even after he got sent to Azkaban.”

            “You know they weren’t married when Rabastan was first sent to Azkaban, right? She didn’t even know him until he got out three years ago and her parents arranged the marriage. She didn’t have a choice in the matter.”

            “That’s awful. Why didn’t she have a choice?”

            “Davida and Gawen’s father is a gambler and a drunk. Their mother raised them on knuts and when it came time to find them matches, they couldn’t afford even the poorest of the other purebloods available. Three years ago Blanche realized that no one would take Lyra, because of her parents and Rabastan had just gotten out of Azkaban, so Blanche put it out there that she was offering generous marriage contracts for both of them and would take any and all offers. Davida and Gawen’s mother jumped at the offer, so Davida got landed with Rabastan and Gawen considers himself very lucky to have gotten Lyra. She’s several years older than him, but she’s not at all like either of her parents.”

            “So Lyra is er…?”

            “Aunt Bella and Uncle Rodolphus’ technically, but she was raised by Blanche from the time she was a baby.”

            “Wasn’t Bellatrix only imprisoned later?” Lyra looked to be at least five years older than Harry and he was sure Gawen had been at least three years above him at Hogwarts.

            “Yes, but she had a severe case of post-partum depression. She got over the depression with the whole Death Eating and torturing muggles thing, but she never bonded with Lyra and never tried to take her from Blanche. Rodolphus would visit Lyra and give her gifts, but to Aunt Bella, it was like Lyra didn’t exist. When her parents went to Azkaban, Blanche officially adopted Lyra.”

            “I can’t believe how messed up your family is.”

            “Davida and Gawen’s father isn’t related to me, so it’s not my family that’s messed up.”

            “I was referring to Bellatrix.”

            “Oh look, there’s Cecelia; let’s go say hi.”

            “I thought Cecelia was related on your mother’s side.”

            “She is, but she doesn’t have anywhere else to go this Easter. Mother invited her, so be nice.”

            “You go, I’ve got to pee.” Harry always had to pee these days. He was going on average two times per hour.

            “Alright, but come find me when you’re done. If you don’t, I’m going to come looking for you to make sure none of my relatives did anything to you,” Draco said. Harry nodded and Draco took off in the direction of Cecelia.

            Harry went to the loo. When he was done, Draco was talking with Cecelia and her oldest son Hayden, right outside the bathroom. Draco had obviously moved Cecelia in Harry’s direction to make it easier on Harry to reach Draco or so that Draco could keep an eye on Harry, or both.

            “Oh Harry, good, you found me,” Draco said as if he hadn’t just moved his relative right next to where he knew Harry was.

            “Hey Cecelia,” Harry greeted, eyeing Draco to let his husband know he was onto Draco. “Where are your other two?”

            “Hello Harry. Cissy has them in the dining room with the rest of the babies. How has your Easter been so far?” Cecelia asked.

            Cecelia was growing on Harry, because she wasn’t really a Death Eater supporter. She was an extremely naïve and trusting young woman who had no idea what she was getting into when she married a Death Eater and Dax wasn’t even much of a Death Eater. Dax had participated in a few battles, but had run off without ever killing anyone. He was still on the run, but wasn’t a priority for the Ministry, who were spending their resources on capturing people who had killed.

            “Fine. But what I don’t get is why we’re even celebrating Easter. I thought the Malfoys were all about Beltane.” Harry didn’t see why he had to deal with the extended Malfoy family on Easter and then the Crabbe family on Beltane, only one month later.

            “It’s Armando Dippet’s fault. He switched Hogwarts from celebrating Beltane and the Celtic holidays to celebrating the muggle ones. There are always children away at school with a family this big, so we have to do it during school holidays; hence Easter,” Draco explained.

            Harry spent a few minutes listening to Draco make small talk with Cecelia, before Lucius came over and said, “Ah there’s my son-in-law! I was just telling my third cousin Evander Vanity how well pregnancy suits you, Harry. Doesn’t he look wonderful pregnant Evander?”

            “Yes, he certainly does,” an older man next to Lucius agreed. Evander was ten years older than Lucius, just barely old enough to escape being a Death Eater. Half of the men his age had still been Death Eaters, but Evander had never been good at dueling, so he supported the cause with this money only.

            “I was just telling Evander that I’m hoping for half a dozen grandchildren. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? To have the Manor full of children again,” Lucius said.

            “Father, I think we’re quite alright with just the four children,” Draco said.

            “What’s another two? With the ease Harry’s gone through this pregnancy, it’ll be no problem for him to push out another two. And we have plenty of room for them and enough money to support them. I don’t see why you shouldn’t have more; just look how beautiful, intelligent, and magically gifted your sons are.”

            “There isn’t enough room in the Manor for more children.”

            “Nonsense, we’ll make room. Your mother and I’ll move out to the Villa and you and Harry can have the bedroom on the third floor. The third floor landing has been used as a nursery by Malfoys in the past. And with us gone, you and Harry can have the studies on the third floor for yourselves and the study on the second floor can be turned into another bedroom. Granted with more children, this drawing room will get more use, but that will be good,” Lucius said.

            “This room is too cold and drafty for children during the winter, even with heating charms,” Draco replied.

            “That can be fixed. My great grandparents had seven children in this house, Draco, and that’s how they did it,” Lucius replied.

            “And two children to every room, just like the Weasleys,” Draco said sneering.

            “Well there was plenty of separation between the children. By the time Septimus was out of the nursery, his oldest two sisters were off to Hogwarts, so he had his own room. His sisters all had to share, but with the oldest two away most of the year, it was like two of them had their own room. And then two years after that the third daughter went off to Hogwarts and there was only one child per bedroom for most of the year,” Lucius replied.

            “Yeah, alright, more children could be made to fit, but I think four children is quite enough,” Draco said.

            “Harry, don’t you think your boys turned out well?” Lucius asked.

            “Um, yeah, of course,” Harry replied.

            “Father, can I speak to you in the library for a moment?” Draco asked, knowing his father was about to convince his husband to have more children.

            “Yes, certainly. What is this about, Draco?” Lucius asked.

            “Harry, the boys are in the dining room with mother. Why don’t you check on them?” Draco asked.

            Harry agreed and began shuffling towards the door to the dining room and Draco led Lucius off in the other direction, towards the library. Draco shut the door behind them, before saying, “I know you’re just using this wanting more grandchildren idea of yours as an excuse to keep Harry home and out of trouble.”

            “I don’t see what the problem with that is, Draco. Once he’s been home for ten years he’ll be used to it and you won’t have to worry about him wanting to be an Auror anymore.”

            “The problem is the strain that would put on me and our marriage.”

            “You won’t have that problem with the next pregnancy, if you wait a few years until all of your children are older.”

            “No. We aren’t having a next pregnancy and I’d thank you not to bring it up again.”

            “Do you have some other plan for keeping Harry at home?”

            “If he wants to be an Auror, that’s fine with me as long as he doesn’t get himself killed.”

            “That’s exactly what’s going to happen. If some dark wizard doesn’t take him down on the job, then he’ll drink his way into an early grave to coop with the stress.”

            “If he’s stressed out, I’ll make him quit. And as soon as he has his first near death experience, then I’ll convince him to quit. Until then, I’m gonna let him be an Auror.”

            “You’re making a mistake, Draco.”

            “And it’s my right to make it. Now I’m going to find my husband and I don’t want to hear you mentioning this again.”

            “Alright, for now. Once he goes back to the Aurors I will be mentioning it again unless you come up with another way to keep him home.”

            “I will figure out how to keep him at home when it comes to that, when he’s actually stressed, but not until then.”

            Draco went back out to the drawing room, working his way through the crowd of people until he reached Harry, who was just approaching the door to the dining room. “Why is there a unicorn in the dining room?” Harry asked.

            Narcissa and another middle aged witch with blond hair who Harry didn’t recognize were sitting in the dining room with four children in highchairs and three in booster seats around the table. The four highchairs belonged to Sev, Scorp, Teddy, and Cecelia’s youngest, Clarity. The three booster seats belonged to Cecelia’s middle child, Japhet, and two other toddlers Harry didn’t know. Narcissa was feeding Clarity, the other woman was feeding Teddy, and the older children were feeding themselves. And right next to Scorp’s highchair, was a unicorn.

            Draco pulled out a chair for Harry, who sat down with a huff. “Mother ordered it to help Scorp with all of the strangers. He seems to like it,” Draco said.

            “Right. I don’t know why I had to come down here. My feet and back are killing me,” Harry complained.

            “Here, let me massage your back,” Draco said, rubbing Harry’s shoulders.

            “Thanks,” Harry said, watching Scorp and Sev feed themselves yogurt, while Narcissa spooned bits of mashed squash into Teddy’s mouth. Scorp and Sev were making quite the mess, especially Sev, who was finger painting with his yogurt on the tray of his highchair.

            Draco massaged Harry’s back as best he could with Harry sitting in a chair. As the pregnancy had progressed in these last few weeks, Harry had started getting more aches and pains, so Draco had taken to giving Harry backrubs regularly.

            It wasn’t much longer before the house elves announced that dinner was being served in the drawing room, so Draco led Harry back out to eat, leaving his mother and Draco’s distant relation to look after the little ones. There was now a very long table running through the middle of the room and all of the witches and wizards were sitting down with plates of food. When Harry sat down he noticed a distinct lack of men of a certain age. There were a few older men like Cantankerous Nott and Evander Vanity, then there was Lucius and Mr. Shafiq, the Malfoy family attorney, and then there weren’t any men until Gawen Gordon and Graham Montague, both of who were only a few years older than Draco and Harry. Judging from the number of women in the missing age range, Harry calculated that there must be a dozen or more men missing from the Malfoy family.

            After the meal, Harry was tired, so he went upstairs to sleep and left Draco to deal with the relatives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next is the baby shower and the baby’s birth!  
> Please Review!


	62. Chapter62

            The following Saturday Hermione showed up at the Manor in Harry’s bedroom and said, “Get dressed. Why aren’t you already at the Burrow? Didn’t you get our invitation? We invited you over today weeks ago.” Harry was lying on his side alone in bed reading. He put aside his wizarding comic book when he noticed Hermione’s presence. Draco was already up and taking care of the children.

            “I got it, but I ignored it. I’m too pregnant to move,” Harry replied. He was in no mood to go anywhere, although he was no longer at the peak of his misery; that had occurred last month when he’d found it difficult to breathe, because the baby had been crushing his lungs. In the last week, the baby had moved down lower, no longer interfering with his breathing, which was an enormous relief. However, in moving down, the baby’s head had moved into his pelvic region, which interfered with his ability to walk or move. It also meant the baby was absolutely crushing his bladder, which seemed to be able to hold no more than about a teaspoon these days. Luckily, he had finally convinced Narcissa to cast a short term urine vanishing charm on him every day. She’d already been in here this morning, which meant he didn’t have to pee and wouldn’t have to again until tomorrow morning. “And I am dressed.”

            “Honestly Harry, this is your surprise baby shower. Everyone is already there and waiting for you. I left my books, my notes, and my homework behind for you, and NEWTs are just around the corner.”

            “Well you should’ve planned it about four months ago, before I was too miserable to care. Go back to your NEWTs.” Harry didn’t think Hermione would be able to resist the chance to study more.

            “We didn’t know you weren’t having one four months ago. If that’s what you want to wear, fine, but you’re going if I have to side along you myself. I’m not sacrificing my study time for nothing Harry.”

            “My husband will never agree to this. Draco!”

            Draco heard Harry’s call and came out of the nursery. “What’s going on?” he asked.

            “Hermione’s trying to kidnap me for some silly baby shower. Tell her I’m not going.”

            “Draco, you and the boys are invited too. Come along, it’ll be fun,” Hermione said.

            “Where is this shower?” Draco asked.

            “The Burrow. Molly, Ginny, and I sent you an invitation weeks ago,” Hermione answered.

            “Alright, you can take Harry, but the boys are staying here,” Draco replied.

            “I want to stay too. You can go, but I don’t want to move until this bloody baby gives me back my body,” Harry complained.

            “Don’t talk about Lilac like that, Harry. You’ll have to side along him Hermione; he won’t be moved,” Draco said. The last time Harry had been bathed he’d been levitated to the bathroom and deposited in the tub.

            “Alright, fine. Let’s go Harry,” Hermione said taking Harry’s arm. “Meet us there Draco.”

            “Will do,” Draco said and went to find his parents to get them to watch the boys, before apparating to the Burrow.

            When Draco arrived at the Burrow, Harry was reclining in an easy chair on the lawn surrounded by baby party decorations and a large number of witches. “Draco dear, over here,” Molly called, motioning Draco over to where she was organizing the games near Harry.

            When Draco reached Molly Weasley, she hugged him and said, “I’m so glad you came, Draco. I had hoped you’d bring the babies, but at least you’re here.”

            “The boys are entirely too mobile now to take anywhere,” Draco replied. Teddy had just started running two weeks ago and Scorp had just gotten his first medical grade walker. With the new walker holding Scorp up, he was finally mobile and causing just as much trouble as his brothers.

            “I can assure you that I can handle three rambunctious toddlers. Although, Harry does seem to be extremely grumpy. He said we were four months too late for him to come. I would’ve thrown one months ago if I’d known you weren’t going to have one, dear, but I was under the impression your family was throwing one for him. Andy told me you were having one in late March, so it wasn’t until it didn’t happen that we realized he needed one and I put this together,” Molly said.

            “Well with Harry unable to defend himself, we didn’t think it was worth the risk. And we don’t need any gifts, because we already have the Malfoy nursery set. Then there are enough toys and baby things from the three boys that we have everything we need,” Draco explained. “But Aunt Andy, why did you think we were having one? No one ever said anything about it and we weren’t planning one.”

            “You were all planning that surprise event, which turned out to just be Easter with the Malfoy family, but I’d thought it was Harry’s baby shower,” Andy lied. She’d known all along that no one was throwing Harry a baby shower, but she didn’t think he should be having another baby so soon and she wasn’t going to help anyone throw a party to celebrate.

            “Draco, can I have a sleeping potion? You can wake me when this is over,” Harry groused.

            “Oh Harry, don’t be like that. This is your big day!” Ginny exclaimed, fitting Harry with a silly party hat.

            “Right,” Harry said removing the hat. “If I knew where my wand was, I’d hex you right now, Ginny.”

            “Mum, we better start before Harry gets a hold of a wand,” Ginny said.

            “Oi Harry, you can use mine. I’ve been dying to get her back for that bat-boogey hex she hit me with that one time,” Draco said, handing Harry his wand.

            Harry hit Ginny with a tap-dancing curse, which signaled the start of the games. The most embarrassing game was when they guessed Harry’s width and then measured him. He really couldn’t believe he was about three times his pre-pregnancy width, but he was. In fact he was almost as big as Draco had been, even though Draco had been pregnant with twins and he was only carrying the one baby.

            “What are you naming the baby, Harry?” Luna asked, coming up to Harry while everyone was playing baby bingo. Headmistress McGonagall had given her and Ginny special permission to leave the school for the weekend for this.

            “Lilac Aiki Malfoy,” Draco answered for Harry, having just marked off a B on his bingo card.

            “Actually, I changed my mind,” Harry said and Draco groaned.

            “Harry, we’re never going to agree on another name this late in the game. It was a miracle we agreed on that one,” Draco protested, giving up on his bingo card. He barely understood the muggle game and he obviously wasn’t going to win.

            “Yeah, but Aiki sounds like a cross between a sneeze and the word icky,” Harry replied.

            “So what did you have in mind, Harry?” Luna asked.

            “Lilac Koholā Malfoy. Koholā is the name of the whale shaped constellation. I like it better than Aiki. I don’t need my daughter named after Sirius and Aiki just means a booby bird anyway.”

            “Kawalla?” Draco asked. Just because he loved Hawaii, didn’t mean he could speak the language.

            “Ko-ho-lā,” Harry replied and Draco groaned.

            “I swear Harry, this is the last kid, if for no other reason than the fact we can’t agree on a name to save our lives. I can’t _believe_ you would even _suggest_ naming our child after a _whale_.”

            “Well what did you have in mind?”

            “If I’d known you didn’t like Aiki anymore, I would’ve suggested Orphelia. It means wolf.”

            “Or-feel-ee-a? Ew.”

            “What do you mean Ew? It’s a perfectly good name and at least it doesn’t imply she’s fat.”

            “If you are looking for a female name for Sirius, Harry, have you considered Isis?” Luna asked, calmly interjecting another name.

            “What does Isis have to do with Sirius?” Harry asked. He liked the sound of the name; flowery, almost, like irises.

            “The goddess has always been associated with the Dog Star,” Luna replied.

            “Lilac Isis Malfoy. What do you think, Draco?” Harry asked.

            “Isis…It’s better than Kahalla, that’s for sure,” Draco replied.

            “Seriously Draco, would you want that to be our daughter’s name or not?”

            “It’s alright,” Draco started, but noticed the disappointed look on Harry’s face. “Honestly Harry, the choice is up to you. I picked our sons’ names and it’s your turn to pick our daughter’s.”

            “You mean it?”

            “Yes, I do. I love you and I’m sure that whatever you decide will be lovely,” Draco said, cupping his hand over Harry’s cheek. He stroked the puffy skin there, before placing a tender kiss to Harry’s lips; Harry’s face was swollen from the pregnancy, but Draco still thought Harry was good looking.

            When they broke apart, Harry said, “Good, then it’s settled. I really like Isis.”

            After games was the food. Well during the games too Harry was eating, but after the games everyone ate. Then there was cake and ice cream, followed by the presents. Harry was interested in what he’d gotten, but he couldn’t bend down to open the gifts up, so Draco did it for him and held everything up for Harry to see. Since there were almost as many people as had been to Teddy’s baby shower, they got almost as many gifts.

            They got a lot of girl clothes, which they actually needed. All of their baby clothes were neutral or for boys, so the heaps and piles of lacey dresses and girly clothes were appreciated. There were even onesies that said things like, “My Daddy is the Savior of the Wizarding World,” and, “My Daddy is the Boy Who Lived.” The onesie that said, “My Daddy Defeated the Dark Lord,” was Draco’s favorite, but Harry’s favorite said, “Malfoy Princess.”

            In addition to the clothes, there were plenty of baby toiletries, such as nappies, soap, spoons, and everything in between, including a purple nappy bag to put it all in. Then there were a large number of items that they didn’t need, because they already had three of them at home; these had flowery or lacey patterns in girly colors and included a new highchair, bouncer, walker, baby bathtub, and crib set. The other things they got were completely superfluous, such as another swing and jumper, when they had three swings and three jumpers at home, and a playpen, when they hadn’t needed a playpen so far.

            There was also the typical odd assortment of gifts from Draco’s relatives, who Molly had invited. Since Scorp’s unicorn blanket had been such a hit, The Craggy family got another one for Lilac. From the Vanity family there was a sweater and blanket set made out of puffskein wool. The Rosier family gave dress robes with matching shoes again, but also a soft silver occamy egg; Harry didn’t know what he was expected to do with the egg. The Cornfoot family gave another protection bracelet with a shield charm. The Burke family gave an elegant silver tiara, which gave off a pleasant, happy aura and unlike the crowns the Burkes had given the twins, Harry thought he might actually let his daughter have this tiara.

            From the Pucey family there was a set of a dozen empty memory balls, ready to preserve a moment with a simple spell. Mrs. Shafiq gave a silver baby brush and comb set. The Rowle family gave a collection of baby barrettes, hair ties, and head bands, all with intricate attachments and charms, such as the headband with a blooming rose and the barrette with a pair of flying, twirling, buzzing bees. The Smith family gave a set of very old silver and diamond earrings, even though it was far too soon to think about piercing an unborn baby’s ears. The Crabbe family, having heard that the baby was to be named Lilac, gave lilac themed room decorations, including a painting. Mrs. Lestrange gave a very old elegant hair comb and a scepter topped with a large diamond, since Lilac was to be born in April.

            Draco, Hermione, and Luna were just gathering up all of the gifts when Harry felt a pain in his distended abdomen. “Ow!” Harry exclaimed.

            “What is it? Are you okay, Harry?” Draco asked.

            “Sharp pain. I think I might be in labor,” Harry said in between gritted teeth. The pain was passing, but it had hurt really badly. He hoped he was in labor, because that would mean his misery would end soon.

            “Do you have the second cervix?” Draco asked.

            Harry felt his belly, but he didn’t feel anything. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. He didn’t want to pull up his robes to make sure, because he wasn’t wearing trousers underneath. He was far too fat to fit in any of his old trousers. He didn’t even think they’d fit after he had the baby, because he’d put on a lot of weight with this pregnancy.

            “He still might be going into labor, Draco; you should take him to St. Mungo’s to get checked out,” Hermione said.

            “Nonsense dear. It’s far too soon, even if he is in labor, to do anything about it. You should take him home and put him to bed. If he’s going to be up all morning in labor, he might as well get some sleep while he can,” Mrs. Weasley said.

            “I like Molly’s suggestion. Knock me out please and wake me up when it’s over,” Harry said, no longer in pain.

            “Alright, I’m taking you home, Harry. Hermione, can you see to the presents?” Draco asked.

            Hermione agreed and Draco side along apparated Harry back to their bed. Hermione sent gift after gift through the floo into the sitting room and Draco ignored it all, in favor of tending to Harry. Draco levitated Harry into the bath, so that he could soak in the nice warm water.

            “Is Harry alright? Hermione just came through the floo and said he might be going into labor,” Narcissa said, coming into the loo.

            “He’s fine. There’s no second cervix,” Draco said.

            “Good, then it isn’t time yet,” Narcissa confirmed. Generally with Peverell pregnancies, they waited until after the second cervix had appeared and started dilating before going to the hospital. With Draco’s pregnancy they had had to use a spell to determine when Draco was going into labor, because the second cervix was already there from the near miscarriage.

            “Where are the boys?” Draco asked.

            “Your father is watching them. He’s just doing the nappy changes and cleaning them up for naptime,” Narcissa answered.

            “You should go help him. Harry and I are fine,” Draco said, not wanting his mother to see his husband’s bits.

            As it turned out, Harry didn’t go into labor that day. It wasn’t until three days later on Tuesday April thirteenth nineteen ninety-nine that he went into labor and was taken to St. Mungo’s, where he gave birth to Lilac Isis. She weighed in at a whopping eight pounds, fifteen ounces. She had a few wisps of black hair, but was otherwise bald. Her eyes when she was born were as light as Draco’s and she looked like Narcissa, definitely taking after the Black side of the family. Harry saw Sirius in the shape of his baby’s eyes, chin, cheeks, and forehead. Draco had never met Sirius, so he just saw his mother and Grandfather Cygnus in Lilac’s features.

            Harry liked that he was finally able to hold his daughter and he was relieved that he didn’t have to pee every five minutes now that Lilac was no longer crushing his bladder. But he was not at all happy, although he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t happy or why he started crying. He was just so tired and worn out from the birth, but he couldn’t get to sleep and his hormones were way off. He’d handed Lilac off to Draco and closed his eyes to get some rest, but two hours later he was still awake and Lilac was crying to be fed. He had never noticed it before, but now he couldn’t stand the sound of a newborn’s cry.

            Draco helped Harry get Lilac to latch onto Harry’s elongated nipples. His nipples had been slowly transforming into teats over the past few months.

            Lilac sucked for a few minutes and then fell asleep. Harry took the baby off of his nipple, but when he did, she woke up and started crying again. This time Draco helped Lilac latch onto Harry’s other nipple and showed him how to stroke Lilac’s cheek, so that the baby would stay awake and finish eating. But again when Harry removed the baby she woke up and cried. At this point Nurse McCalman came in and made sure Lilac was latched on correctly, which she was, and then checked Harry’s chest, to make sure he was producing colostrum.

            Harry turned out to be the problem, because both of his breasts were bone dry. It was too soon for him to be making milk, but his chest should’ve been full of the clear fluid called colostrum and it wasn’t. Absolutely nothing came out when his nipples were squeezed.

            “We can give your baby some donor milk for now. There are some witches who have just stopped nursing their own babies who donate breast milk to the hospital. I’ll go get a bottle of it,” nurse McCalman said.

            “No, there’s no need. I can feed Lilac,” Draco said, taking the baby from Harry.

            “Draco’s still breast feeding our three boys,” Harry explained as Draco did what he could not and nursed their baby.

            Harry looked with awe at Draco feeding his baby and experienced a weird clenching sensation in his chest as his heart soared. His husband was giving life-nourishing fluid to their daughter, something he was supposed to be doing, but couldn’t. It was a beautiful sight and while watching it, he came to realize that this is what being married was about. This is what love is: having each other’s back, being on the same wavelength, and caring about the other so much that you want what they want, just because you want to see them happy. It was bringing a child into the world together to share, loving their child, and making sure that she had everything needed to thrive.

            Love wasn’t about sex, lust, and desire, which were all things they still had; yes, those things helped, especially in the beginning when that was all their relationship was to Harry. But now that he knew stronger, deeper feelings were possible, he wondered if Draco had felt them all along; ever since Draco had first said those three words back. Draco had been reluctant to say them, insisting that he wanted to be sure he felt them before saying them, which now made Harry think that Draco had known all along about these deeper feelings and had been feeling them since their engagement.

            Harry was just beginning to feel real love now and it made him feel like an utter cad, plunging his emotional rollercoaster back down. Draco had felt it for two years already and had waited to say it until he meant it. Harry had been saying it all this time, without meaning it until today. He hadn’t meant to lie or to deceive his husband, but he just hadn’t known what true love was; how could he, after growing up with the Dursleys? Draco deserved better.

            “I love you,” Harry said thickly, reaching out to stroke Draco’s arm and then cheek. He hadn’t realized he was crying until now, the mucus in his throat making his speech sound thick.

            Draco kept one arm cradling their daughter and with the other, reached out to wipe the tears from under Harry’s eyes. “I love you too. Why are you crying? It’s going to be okay; I don’t mind feeding Lilac for you.” His voice was gentle and tender and Harry could feel the love in it.

            “I feel…” Harry began, but didn’t know how to ask what he wanted to know.

            “Yes, Harry? I know your emotions are going crazy right now. They are always out of whack after having a baby.”

            “No Draco, this is more. I feel this deep, overarching love for you that I didn’t feel before. It’s stronger and more powerful than what I felt before. Do you feel that too?”

            Draco closed his eyes and tried to mask the disappointment on his face, because that wasn’t something Harry needed to see. He’d thought Harry had felt it all along too. “Since before I told you I love you too.”

            At that, Harry pulled back and began to sob, his tears coming down thick and fast.

            “Harry?” Draco asked concerned, opening his eyes. His disappointment was masked now, he was sure of it. “Harry look at me.”

            Harry looked up, through his bleary eyes and tear flecked glasses and met Draco’s intense gaze. There was nothing but love on his husband’s face.

            “I love you,” Draco continued. “My love for you is deep and everlasting. It doesn’t matter if it took you a little longer to feel what I feel, as long as you feel it now. Besides, I had help.”

            “You did?” Harry asked.

            “Yes, being pregnant with your children heightened my emotions. Pregnancy is a very emotional time and it’s almost impossible to go through it without coming to love your partner in the end.”

            “I should’ve loved you since you were pregnant with the twins.”

            “But you weren’t around. I had to go into hiding and you had other things on your plate; more important things. You had to save the world, so that we’d be safe.” Harry didn’t look at all convinced by this, so Draco continued. “No, Harry, you have to see how important your contribution was. It doesn’t much matter that you didn’t feel everything right away, because you acted like you did. You provided for us and made sure we were safe. That’s what you would’ve done if you’d really loved me and that’s what you did. And you love me now, which is what’s important. We have the rest of our lives for you to love me and make it up to me.”

            “And for you to love me too?” Harry asked shyly, the tears momentarily held at bay by Draco’s speech.

            “Yes. Come here.” Draco beckoned Harry closer with his free hand. Harry leaned in over their suckling daughter and Draco closed the remaining distance, pressing his lips to Harry’s. The kiss was chaste, but passionate, the two lovers molding their lips together in an expressing of their love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was the ending a bit of a surprise? I know Harry has been saying those three words all this time, but he said them too fast and never described experiencing the sort of deeper feelings Draco did. There were about a dozen reviews commenting that it wasn’t fair to Harry that Draco didn’t love him back right away. Each time I almost gave it away that Harry doesn’t actually love Draco yet and that it was just lust, but hopefully I managed to keep quiet and surprise you.
> 
> I’m debating if I should leave it here or write in a bit of Harry’s post-partum depression. There are still a number of loose ends to tie up: reconciling with Ron, Draco’s NEWTS, meeting the Crabbe’s, Teddy’s first birthday, and Lilacs accidental magic. I could put them in an epilogue or write a half dozen or so more chapters. What do you think? If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume you want me to leave it here and just write an epilogue.  
> Please Review!


	63. Chapter63

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A handful of reviewers asked for more chapters, but the other side won. And well, depression is such a depressing thing to write about. I’m posting the epilogue now, but there will be one outtake to follow, with the most interesting chapter from what was to be the depression arc. I will post it next week, so keep an eye out for it :)

Seven years later.

            “Harry, there’s been some sort of mistake. They’ve reassigned me Izzy for a partner and given you desk duty,” Ron said, coming up to Harry’s cubical in the Auror department.

            Harry had gone to work shortly after Lilac’s birth to help him cope with his postpartum depression. Initially he’d been given an anti-depressant, but that had turned him into a zombie. Draco got gotten fed up with his zombie of a husband and ordered Harry out of the house to do something to make him happy again. Harry had gone to the Burrow, where Ron had initially thought that this was his chance to steal Harry away from Draco. It had been Ron who suggested that Harry go back to work and it had been work that had helped Harry get back to normal.

            Harry’s relationship with Draco was strained at first, but it hadn’t taken Ron long to realize that the separation was hurting Harry. In the end Ron had come to understand that the relationship was in Harry’s best interest. Ron had then encouraged Harry to repair the marriage. Draco had taken Harry back with open arms, forgiving Harry instantly and just glad that his husband was happy and back to normal. Ron and Draco still didn’t get along and did their best to avoid each other, but they had an understanding now that they both knew Harry needed both of them.

            “There’s no mistake. I failed my physical yesterday, so there’s no more fieldwork for me,” Harry replied.

            “What! How can you fail? You’re in just as good of shape as me!”

            “No, I’m slower now and still slowing down. Remember when we started and I could out run almost everyone here?”

            “Yeah. Alright, so you’ve slipped a bit, we all have, we just need to get out on the track and run. I’ll have you back in shape before you know it.”

            “No Ron, this is fine, really. I need to take more time off to spend with the kids anyway.”

            “What? You already cut back on your hours two years ago when Draco went to work. You only work thirty hours a week as it is.”

            “Yes and I’m cutting that back to twenty. I can’t continue to work cases out in the field at only twenty hours a week anyway.” With Draco’s political career taking off, Harry needed to be home more for the kids. That was only fair, given that Draco had stayed home for five years after Lilac was born and hadn’t started work until she started private Kindergarten.

            “Did Robards say that? I know he couldn’t have said it; you’re his golden Auror; whatever you want you get.”

            “That’s standard policy. I’m sure Robards would make an exception for me, but now he doesn’t have to. It’s better this way.”

            “I still don’t see how you failed your physical. That’s impossible; you’re in the gym more hours than me.”

            “That’s because you haven’t been in the gym at all; not with Hermione being pregnant.”

            “Right, but still, it doesn’t make sense.”

            “It’s personal.”

            “I’m your best mate, Harry; you can tell me.”

            “Tell you what: I’ll tell you at Andy’s place after work. I have to stop over there and talk to her about having Draco’s birthday party on her lawn.” The kids had asked for another swamp-in-slide party, like the one they had just had for Lilac and Edward’s birthdays; with them being born a week apart, their birthdays were always combined.

            “Alright mate,” Ron said, before sitting down at his own desk and getting to work.

 

* * *

 

            After work, Harry had an errand to run, but he was still on to meet with Ron at Andy’s.

            Ron apparated to Andy’s lawn, where he was ambushed by three young boys, one with messy brown hair and blue eyes, one with perfectly styled blond hair and green eyes, and the other with neat raven hair and blue eyes. The black haired one was an inch shorter than the other two, but they were all very close in size. This was the first time Ron was seeing Harry’s kids in years and probably the closest he’d been to the kids since Remus and Tonks’ funeral, when the kids had only been just on the other side of the stage. Ron’s eye couldn’t help but be drawn to the ridiculously perfect blond hair, which was clearly due to having the follicles permanently rearranged. Harry had told Ron about Draco paying to have it done to Sev on Sev’s second birthday; Harry was slightly annoyed by the event at the time.

            “Oi hello, Sev, Scorp, and Teddy right?” Ron asked indicating the blond, black, and brown haired boys respectively. “I’m Ron; your dad’s best mate.”

            “No, I’m Remus,” the raven haired boy said, turning his hair cyan to prove his point, before turning it back to black.

            Harry had told Ron years ago that Teddy preferred to go by his middle name, after his biological father. Ron still remembered the day Harry had come over and announced that a two-year-old Teddy had asked Harry and Andy to stop calling him Teddy. Ron thought it was obvious that Draco was behind it, but Harry and Andy had gone along with the name change, given that Draco had been calling the child Edward almost from the beginning.

            “This is Japhet and that’s Scorp over there,” Sev said, pointing first to the brown haired boy next to him and then to another raven haired little boy just breaking through the tree line.

            Remus was obviously not Scorp now that Ron saw the real Scorp, because the child had a brace on his left leg and was walking with a pair of crutches. Ron should’ve known that Teddy couldn’t have been Scorp, because of the lack of brace and crutches, which Harry had told Ron about back when Scorp had first gotten them. The brace was magically reinforced to take a lot of the boy’s weight and the crutches helped Scorp move faster and closer to a normal walking speed, although he couldn’t run or keep up with the other boys. Ron knew that the healers at St. Mungo’s were predicting that it’d be many years more of muscle strengthening potion and rehabilitation therapy in Scorp’s future. Even then, there was no guarantee that Scorp would ever have full function of that leg.

            “How could you even think I’m Scorp? He has grey eyes, not blue,” Remus said, flashing his eyes between grey and blue to emphasize his point. “And Scorp’s chin is more pointy and his cheeks are more sharp and his nose is thinner.” With each feature he named, he changed to match Scorp’s. “And Phet doesn’t look anything like me.” For the most part he kept his features midway between where they naturally lay and the features of his siblings. Japhet’s features were rounder than Remus normally went with.

            “Right, so sorry about that. Did you just leave your brother behind in the trees?” Ron asked.

            “No!” Sev shouted indignantly.

            “Uh uh , Hayden’s with him,” Remus said and pointed to an older boy with light brown hair about twenty feet away from where Scorp was. There was a large puddle with two little girls, one with black hair and the other with dirty blond hair, playing in it and Hayden was trying to stop them.

            “Lilac and Clarity are with him too,” Japhet said.

            Cecelia Flint and her three children still lived in the charity cottage on the property and the children were almost always over playing with the Malfoy children after school. Draco had gotten Clarity Flint a scholarship to go to private school with the Malfoy children, allegedly based on intellectual merit. In reality it was based on the fact that Lilac had asked Draco to, so that her best friend would be in her class. Japhet was in the grade above Sev, Scorp, and Remus and Hayden was two grades above that, so Draco hadn’t bothered getting either of the Flint boys into the expensive private school.

            Cecelia Flint had home schooled both of her boys up until two years ago when Clarity had started private school. At that time Draco had arranged for Hayden and Japhet to get seats in the new all wizarding primary school for working class families. The school was much cheaper and was advertised to be on par with muggle public schools, with the advantage that children could floo into school from anywhere in Great Britain. The Malfoy family was making the very public donation of tuition for two children, which Draco arranged for the Flint children to be awarded. Draco did it to support the school, get recognition for his charitable deeds, and to get Cecelia’s two boys into school for a fraction of the price he’d pay for one kid to go to the expensive private school.

            Ron had never met the Flint children, although he heard about them a lot from Harry, because they were the Malfoy children’s best friends. That fact irked Ron, because he thought Lilac should be best friends with Bill and Fleur’s daughter, Victoire, since Victoire was only a year younger. Ron was never at family functions that included Victoire and Lilac, but from what he heard about them after the fact, he imagined Lilac was shunning Victoire for being an eighth veela. In reality it was just that Clarity was in the same grade as Lilac, while Victoire was a year younger, but Ron didn’t know that.

            “Right. Well what are you lot doing here? Is this where you’re supposed to be?” Ron asked.

            “No, Father thinks we’re playing in the backyard of the Manor,” Remus said.

            “Remus! You’re not supposed to tell!” Japhet turned on Remus.

            Sev hissed.

            “Sorry Phet.”

            “The portrait of Lucius the first told us that Daddy would be here today. What’d you do with Daddy?” Sev asked accusingly.

            “What’dja say your name was, mister?” Remus asked.

            “Ron. Ron Weasley. I’m friends with your dad,” Ron answered and all three boys gasped loudly in realization.

            The boys, being curious little monsters, liked to spy on adult conversations, using either their dad’s invisibility cloak, their Uncle Gorge’s extendable ears, or Sev’s pet snake. About a year ago, they’d overheard a conversation between their grandmother Narcissa and their dad Harry about how a man named Ron had been at fault for causing Scorp’s crippled leg. They recognized the name of the assailant as the Weasley their father Draco never let them interact with or even see. They knew all of the other Weasleys, just not the ever absent Ron, even though he was married to their Aunt Hermione. After that they’d confronted their dad, who had told them the story of how Scorp came to be born with a crippled leg.

            “What’dja do to Daddy!?!” Sev shouted, followed by a long string of hisses. A snake started slithering its way towards the group, but it was a long way off, so Ron didn’t even notice it.

            “Did’dja hit Daddy?” Remus asked accusingly, assuming Ron was a bad man.

            “Did’dja kill Daddy?” Sev asked, before hissing again, drawing the snake nearer.

            “No! No, I’d never hurt your dad!” Ron replied.

            “I don’t believe you. Come on Remus, we’re telling Father,” Sev said.

            “Yeah, our father knows curses that will turn your skin inside out and string you up by your toes,” Remus said and spat on Ron.

            “Oi, what was that for?” Ron asked indignantly, wiping the saliva off of his robes.

            “For what you did to Scorp. Scorp said he’s gonna hit you like you hit him when he gets the chance,” Sev said, before turning to face the four children still walking over the lawn from the forest. “Lilac! Come here and hurry! I need your help!”

            “I’ll tell Hayd to take Scorp and Clare back,” Japhet said, before turning and running towards his brother.

            Lilac ran straight towards the group and Ron was surprised by the speed at which she ran; it was like watching Harry on a broom back when they were younger. Before Ron knew it, Lilac was standing next to her brothers, leaving Scorp, Hayden, and Clarity behind in her dust. Japhet reached Hayden and then Japhet, Hayden, Scorp, and Clarity started walking back into the forest towards the Manor.

            Now that Lilac was closer, Ron had a better look at her. The little girl reminded him of Andromeda, with her long black hair and Black family features, although Lilac looked less like Bellatrix and more like Narcissa than Andromeda did. But the features weren’t exactly Narcissa, because there was a bit of Harry in Lilac too. The nose was clearly Harry as was the look of joy on Lilac’s face when she was running. Ron knew that Harry adored this little girl and called her his princess; Harry even had a picture of Lilac wearing a tiara on his desk at work, next to the one of Sev with his snake, the one of Scorp on a broom, and the one of Teddy with a sword.

            “Lilac, this is the man who hurt Scorp. We’ve got to punish him!” Sev said.

            “Yeah, Lilac. He’s a _monster_. He picks on babies and hurts them,” Remus said.

            “What has Draco been telling you?” Ron asked, but it was too late, because Lilac was already closing her eyes and concentrating. He didn’t know what the little girl thought she was doing, although he’d heard enough stories about what she was capable of from Harry. “No, no; don’t!” And then he couldn’t talk anymore, falling to the ground petrified. From his vantage point on the ground, Ron finally saw the approaching snake, but couldn’t do anything about it; he couldn’t even scream.

            The three children ran off, leaving Auror Ron Weasley petrified on the grass with an approaching snake. But Ron wasn’t an Auror for nothing and eight years of on the job training meant that he could throw off something as simple as a _petrificus totalus_ , even if cast wordlessly and wandlessly by a powerful seven year old girl. Ron was soon free, standing back up, and vanishing the snake. He dusted himself off as he looked to see the children disappearing back into the forest with Scorp in tow.

            Ron went into Andy’s house, where he told the old woman about what had happened out on her yard with the children. She was so old that she was starting to lose her hearing, hence she hadn’t heard the confrontation at all. It took him a few tries before she finally heard enough of what he was saying to understand.

            “The children are out in the forest between here and the Manor?” Andy asked, to make sure she’d understood.

            “Yes and Scorp was with them on crutches. I think they’ve left him behind,” Ron said.

            “Right, let me just get my broom,” Andy said before summoning her broom. Then she was off, flying over her lawn and into the forest, looking for Scorp. She found him not far into the forest. He hadn’t been left behind, because Hayden had stayed with the crippled boy. Still, the forest was large and Scorp wasn’t supposed to be crossing it at all, so Andy had the young boy climb onto her broom with her and flew him back to the Manor, where the other children were already running into the house to tell Draco about Ron. Hayden ran after Andy and Scorp and was through the forest and within sight of the Manor in just a few minutes.

            Ron sat down on Andy’s couch and waited for Harry. It wasn’t long before Harry arrived and asked, “Where’s Andy?”

            “Oh, she had to stop by the Manor real quick. I’m sure she’ll be back soon,” Ron said, leaving out the details. He knew Harry would take off after the children if Harry knew, but he wanted to talk to Harry first. Besides, Andy clearly had it covered.

            “Oh, alright,” Harry replied.

            “So what’s up with your physical? Why didn’t you pass? Why do you seem to be okay with the fact that you didn’t pass? And why couldn’t you tell me at work?” Ron asked.

            “Well I don’t think you want to know. It relates to my sex life.”

            “You’re right, I have absolutely _no_ desire to hear about what you and Draco get up to, but surely once you recover you’re good to go. How could that possibly cause you to fail your physical?”

            “The problem is Draco’s size. He’s too big. They warned me after Lilac was born that my pelvis hadn’t reverted to its original, pre-delivery state. My pelvis accommodated him magically and over the years, the changes solidified into physical changes,” Harry explained and a look of horror crossed Ron’s face as Ron realized what Harry was saying. “It wasn’t supposed to cause problems this soon; I thought it’d be years down the line before it’d slow me down at all.” He left out some of the details, such as the fact that he’d actually allowed his healer to cast a spell on him allowing his pelvis to expand as wide as needed.

            “Blimey Harry. You gave up your ability to _run_ to be buggered by that git?”

            “Ron! He’s not a git and I was supposed to have years more before it even started affecting me!”

            “Then what happened?”

            “He just kept growing! He’s like a tripod down there.”

            “A what?”

            “A tripod; it’s a muggle stand with three legs for cameras.”

            “So what you’re saying is that Draco has three legs?” Ron asked turning white at the horrible thought.

            “Yes and the larger he got, the more my pelvis widened. The wider my pelvis got, the sooner and more severely my mobility became affected. The healers tell me that Draco is literally as big as a centaur down there; it’s ridiculous.” Peverell’s were traditionally half centaur and quite a bit smaller than a centaur, but the Malfoy family had managed to get their bits up to full centaur size. The healers had said that Draco was one of the largest in the world in terms of penis size.

            “Fuck.”

            “Yes, well that’s what got me into this mess.”

            “No, I didn’t, um…mean it, er, like _that_.”

            “Oh.”

            “Right, well here’s what you have to do, mate: you have to leave Draco and then we’ll go to St. Mungo’s and get them to put you back to normal. You can find someone new with normal bits.”

            “No Ron, I’m staying with Draco and if you start this again, then it’s you I’ll be cutting loose,” Harry said. He had been through this many times with Ron and Draco over the years. Draco never did learn to like Ron, but at least Draco didn’t tell Harry that he couldn’t see Ron and tried not to say anything negative about Ron at all. That didn’t mean Draco liked Ron, but Harry still appreciated the fact that Draco was trying. Ron in turn, hated Draco, but did his best to keep his mouth shut. Although Ron wasn’t nearly as good as it as Draco was and often slipped, regularly calling Draco names. As a result, Harry rarely saw Ron outside of work anymore.

            “You can’t be serious! This is your job and your body you’re talking about giving up!”

            “And it’s my family, my marriage, and my sex life you want me to give up!”

            Ron could understand Harry not wanting to lose his sex life, even if Ron didn’t like it. “You could find someone new to have sex with,” Ron said.

            “I like having sex with Draco.”

            “Right, of course you do. Who wouldn’t want to be buggered by a bloody horse?”

            “Ron! You’re such an arse; I’m leaving.”

            “Wait, no, I’m sorry. Blimey, it’s just I can’t believe you’re giving up your career for your husband.”

            “Draco’s not asking me to give up my career; it’s not his fault he’s big down there.”

            “Right mate, but it’s your career here.”

            “I’m not giving up my career; I’ve still got the desk job and I’ll still be interviewing and interrogating people. And besides, I need to start learning more of how to manage the office from a desk, because Kingsley said I’m next in line to replace Robards.”

            “And just how are you gonna do that, when you’re only working half-time?”

            “Robards isn’t retiring yet; it’ll be another five years or more before I need to be in the office full time. By then, the kids will be off to Hogwarts.”

            Ron started to say something about Draco finding another excuse to keep Harry at home, but then he stopped himself, knowing that Harry had already had enough of Ron criticizing Draco for the day.

            “Ron, Hermione’s pregnant, you should get home to her. I’m going home too; I thought Andy would be back by now, but it’s dinner time, so maybe she decided to stay.”

            “That reminds me; your kids were out on the lawn when I got here. Little Teddy spat on me and Lilac petrified me. Do you know what sort of awful things Draco has been telling them about me?”

            “What!?! Why didn’t you tell me?”

            “I just did. I imagine you’ll be wanting to discipline Teddy.”

            “I don’t have time to deal with you; I’ve got to get home. And Draco didn’t tell them, I did,” Harry said, before apparating away.

            Normally Harry would care more about what Remus had done, but right now he was still mad at Ron for what Ron had said, so he was inwardly pleased that his adoptive son had done it. Remus was the bravest and most daring of the children, which meant that he got himself into the most trouble.

            Harry went back to the Manor, where Draco was almost done giving a group of naughty children timeouts. Draco had already given them a lecture about leaving the protection of the fidelius without asking or letting the adults know where they were going. And then there was the fact that Sugar, who was supposed to be watching the children, had been found dazed and confused walking around the yard after Lilac hit the elf with a burst of uncontrolled magic. Sugar was a young elf that had just started serving the family two years ago and Lilac may have quite possibly permanently damaged the little elf.

            Once timeouts were over, Harry went into the boys’ room and sat down next to Scorp on what used to be the spare bed, but was now Scorp’s bed. Remus and Sev had a bunk bed across from Scorp’s bed, in the middle of the room where the cribs used to be. “You boys know what you did today was very dangerous, don’t you?” Harry asked.

            “Yes Daddy,” all three boys answered.

            “We took Hayden with us, to protect us,” Remus added.

            Harry looked up at Remus, who was sitting on the top bunk, finishing his time out. “Hayden is only eleven; he won’t even start Hogwarts until the fall. There are a lot of dangerous people in this world and your father and I are just trying to protect you,” Harry said.

            “On Great Aunt Andy’s lawn?” Sev asked incredulously.

            “You never know; a lot of people have visited that lawn over the years. The protections on her lawn aren’t as strong as on the Manor proper. You need to stay under the fidelius,” Harry said.

            “That’s ballocks! That awful man shouldn’t have been at my grandmother’s house anyway!” Remus exclaimed.

            “Remus! Language. I came in here to let you lot off of timeout, but if that’s how you’re gonna talk young man, you can just stay up here while the rest of us go have dinner,” Harry said.

            “Sorry Daddy,” Remus said.

            “We’re not in trouble too, Daddy, are we? Sev and I didn’t say it,” Scorp said.

            “No Scorp, you’re not in trouble too. Come on Sev, the two of you can come down to dinner. Remus, I’ll send a house elf to let you off when your time’s up and you can join us,” Harry said.

            Sev ran off down the stairs and Scorp followed behind, getting on his broom and flying downstairs, because that was easier for him to do than to hobble down with the crutches. Harry followed the pair down and when Scorp climbed off the broom, Harry handed his son the pair of crutches back. Together they walked through the drawing room, which had since been redecorated and no longer resembled the room where Hermione had been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange or the room Voldemort had inhabited.

            Now the Manor and every room in it was Harry’s home and Voldemort and Bellatrix had no place in it, even as memories. Lilac had colored on these walls when she was two. This was the room where they had Easter dinner with the extended Malfoy family every year. It was the room where Sev had smashed a very expensive antique vase playing Quidditch. Remus had flung a mud pie at the outside of these antique diamond paned windows and cracked a pane. And it was the first room Scorp had walked across on his new brace and crutches when he first got them three years ago. And now that the children were older and frequently used the second floor sitting room, this was the room Harry and Draco stole away to when they wanted some alone time to reconnect. Harry had many fond memories of snogging Draco senseless right in this very drawing room.

            Harry slowly walked to the dining room with Scorp and they all sat down to dinner, including Andy. Harry would just have to talk to Andy about Draco’s birthday party later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked writing these kids; I’ve had them in my mind for a long time now, having envisioned who they were going to be before they were even born. They made me want to write another story more about the children, which was one of my motivations behind starting my other story, Harry Potter and the Malfoy Male Pregnancy Curse. It’s not in the Peverell Children’s world, but in it, Harry and Draco have 9 children together, plus Teddy. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I recommend that you do.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story this far, especially to those of you who have reviewed. In particularly, I’d like to thank ChaosLady, because quite frequently she was the only one who reviewed; your reviews kept this story going. 
> 
> In other news, now that this story is coming to an end, I get to start posting a new story (I’m one of those people who hate having too many stories in progress at one time). My new story is drama, romance, and adventure; Draco/Harry slash with mpreg of course! It’ll have a war fought on a dragon reserve going on in the background, so there will be plenty of rampaging dragons and close calls, but it’s mostly about Draco and his dragon mysticism religion. Draco is keeping secrets and Auror Harry is determined to uncover them in order to save Draco, by evacuating him from the war-zone. It’s called Dragon Kissed and I just posted the first chapter!


	64. Outtake 1

            The first week of June was very hectic for the Malfoy family. Draco was busy taking his NEWT examination and putting in some last minute study time; he barely had time to eat, sleep, and breast feed Lilac with all of that school work. That meant Draco wasn’t helping out at all with the babies, which was why Molly Weasley was over so much that week. Harry was useless due to his anti-depressant medication, but everyone else pitched in, including Lucius, Druella, and Cecelia, with Narcissa and Andy shouldering the brunt of the childcare.

            Draco was extremely relieved when he finally finished his NEWTs. They were by far the hardest and most stressful set of tests he’d ever taken. They were bloody brutal and even Hermione was a wreck. He came home from Hogwarts and crashed for an entire day.

            Draco wanted more time to recuperate, but he couldn’t take it. Harry wasn’t helping out, so Draco was needed in the nursery. Then there was Teddy’s birthday party to plan and a dozen other things that had slipped through the cracks while he was busy. Scorp needed another visit to the healer. The baby books hadn’t been updated in months; Lilac’s hadn’t even been started. They hardly had any pictures at all of Lilac for that matter. His and Harry’s anniversary was coming up, not to mention that the day after he finished his NEWTs happened to be his nineteenth birthday. All of his friends had sent gifts and cards and asked when the party was going to be. Well Draco had news for them: there wasn’t going to be a party, not for Draco anyway.

            Draco dived head first into the most urgent thing on his list and that was Teddy’s first birthday party. It was scheduled for the following weekend and he hadn’t checked on the arrangements since January. He’d scheduled the date, ordered the elves to make up invitations, booked all of the same entertainment that he’d had for the twins’ birthday party, and even talked to Hagrid about bringing a couple of unicorns, but all of that needed to be cheeked to ensure it was still on track and there were other things that still needed to be handled, such as decorations, security, and food.

            On Monday of the second week in June Draco prepared a menu for the party and had just ordered a pair of house elves to see to it. Now he was in the library trying to coordinate some security measures for the big day, but was distracted by a loud crash upstairs. He put down his notes on security measures and went upstairs to the sitting room where he found Teddy zooming around the room on his toy broom, knocking things off of the shelves, and Harry just watching it all.

            “Harry! What’s going on in here? Why is Edward even out of the nursery?” Draco asked, grabbing a hold of the toddler’s broom. He took the child out of the broomseat and deactivated the toy.

            “Emergency with Lilac. Molly and Cissy took Lilac to St. Mungo’s. They took Sev and Scorp with them and asked me to watch Teddy. Andy’s supposed to be back any minute now,” Harry answered in a monotone.

            “What’s wrong with Lilac?” Draco asked, hefting Teddy onto his hip and putting the broom away.

            “Don’t know.”

            “How can you not know? What did my mother say?”

            “I wasn’t paying attention.”

            “Why weren’t you paying attention? This is our newborn we’re talking about!”

            “I don’t care.”

            “How can you not care? These are our children!”

            “I just don’t.”

            “Stay here, I’ll be right back and then we’re talking about this,” Draco said before taking Teddy into the nursery. He needed to talk to Harry, so he deposited Teddy on the play mat near the toy box and activated a toy. “Stay here. Father needs to talk to Daddy.”

            Teddy was distracted by the toy, so Draco went back out to the sitting room to face Harry. “Why did you even give him a broomstick in this room? You know that the broomsticks are for outside or the boy’s nursery only,” Draco said. Lilac had her own nursery, but they often brought her into the boys’ nursery to keep an eye on her while they looked after the boys.

            “I didn’t give it to him; he just got it.”

            “Right, magic. But once he had it, you should’ve stopped him. You should’ve taken it away, spelled it to the lower setting, and taken him back into the nursery.” Draco looked at Harry, waiting for a response, but when none came, he continued. “Look Harry, I know you’re having a hard time right now. Being pregnant with Lilac was hard, I get that, trust me. I don’t know what’s it’s like to have post-partum depression; I couldn’t afford to be depressed when I had the twins. I was too busy dealing with muggles and taking care of two babies without a fraction of the help you’ve had. You’ve barely even touched Lilac.”

            Again Draco waited for Harry to respond, but Harry didn’t. “Alright, so you’re in a funk right now, but you’re no good to us like this. Last night Sev and Scorp asked you to play with them and what did you do? You ignored them and stared at the wall! And today you let our daughter be taken to St. Mungo’s and you don’t even know what happened! And then you were asked to keep an eye on Edward and you couldn’t even do that!” Draco exclaimed, before stopping to calm himself down.

            “I thought that you’d snap out of it or get over it if I just left you alone, but I’m putting my foot down. I didn’t want to do this, but I’m ordering you to do something. I don’t care what, but you need to do _something_ to get your head back on straight. Go have fun or visit your friends or go to the Ministry and harass Death Eaters for all I care! Just as long as you do something to make yourself happy and you come home in a state where you can be there for our kids. Don’t you want that, Harry?” Draco asked.

            “Yes,” Harry answered. “Are you kicking me out?”

            “I am kicking you out of this house for the moment, yes. You may come home tonight or any time before that if you are out of this funk or at least happy. Go _do_ something.”

            “What?”

            “I don’t care what. If I were you, I’d try visiting my friends. Maybe even make an appointment at St. Mungo’s.”

            “Fine, I’m going to the Burrow.”

            “Good and do something to make yourself happy while you’re there.”

            “Fine, I will.”

            “See to it you do, yeah?”

            Harry huffed and apparated away to the Burrow. The only problem with that plan was that nobody was there. Molly was at St. Mungo’s with Narcissa, Ginny and Hermione were at Hogwarts, and everyone else was at work. Harry hadn’t remembered that Ginny and Hermione were still at school, since Draco was already back home, and he didn’t remember it now. Instead he wondered where they were and figured that they must’ve gone out. He didn’t know when they’d be back or anyone else for that matter, but he didn’t much mind, not caring about that just as fiercely as he didn’t care about everything else these days. He sat in the sitting room and stared off into space, waiting for someone to come home.

            Draco went to check on Teddy, who was pulling toys out of the toy box while a house elf went behind the toddler and put the toys back away. A few minutes later Andy apparated in and asked where everyone was. Draco told her and then got her to agree to watch Teddy, before apparating to St. Mungo’s.

            Draco found his family in the pediatric ward. A medi-witch led him to an exam room where Molly and Narcissa were waiting with Sev, Scorp, and Lilac. The twins were fine, sitting on the floor playing with baby books and toddler toys. Lilac was in one of the hospital’s open basinet’s, with a healer leaned over her.

            “What happened? What’s going on?” Draco asked.

            “Fa-er!” Scorp exclaimed, throwing his arms up and looking like he might cry if Draco didn’t comply with his request.

            “Fasssssersss!” Sev exclaimed, also throwing his arms up and looking like he too was about to cry.

            “Alright Scorp, Sev, Father’s here,” Draco said, picking Sev up with one arm and Scorp up with the other. He sat down with them on the examination table and settled Scorp onto his lap, holding Sev on his side with Sev standing up. “What happened, Mother?”

            “Lilac did accidental magic and hurt Scorp and Sev. Healer Virji here already put them back to normal, but he’s still looking at Lilac to see if there’s a reason why she had such a strong outburst like that,” Narcissa explained.

            “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with Lilac, Lord Malfoy. As far as I can tell, she’s perfectly happy and healthy. From what I’ve been told, she was very upset when it happened and from what I can see, she’s an extremely powerful little witch,” Healer Virji said.

            “That’s good, right?” Draco asked.

            “It’s very good, but until she can channel her magic through a wand core, you can expect a great number of outbursts of magical energy like the one that happened today. I suggest putting her to sleep in a different room from your sons and using a monitoring charm to tell you when she wakes up. That way the boys won’t wake her and you’ll reduce her aggravation with them, which should decrease the likelihood of your boys suffering additional injuries,” Healer Virji replied.

            “But we have silencing charms up on everything she sleeps in. All of the cribs, cradles, and basinets in the house have silencing charms on them,” Draco protested.

            “Draco, it wasn’t the noise that woke Lilac today. Scorp was going along in his walker in front of Lilac’s cradle- you know how he likes to look at her- and Sev ran into him, knocking Scorp over into the cradle. They both fell on the cradle. Lilac wasn’t hurt, but she was jostled around,” Narcissa explained.

            “Oh,” Draco said, looking down at his boys.

            “Yes, so if you could either put her down in her crib, which should be protected from this situation, or in another room, then hopefully everything will be fine,” Healer Virji said.

            “Her crib’s already in another room. She has her own room; we just had her in the boys’ room so that we could keep an eye on her,” Narcissa replied.

            “Alright, good. And I did notice the flames in the wall sconces flickering when she first came in and was so upset. I think it’s best if you check all of your wall sconces and make sure none of the flames are anywhere near flammable material. If she goes off again, she could start a fire,” Healer Virji said.

            “Alright, we’ll check when we get home. Thank you Healer,” Narcissa said.

            After that they were free to go. Draco passed Sev to his mother, Molly picked up Lilac, and they all flooed back to the Manor, where Draco and Narcissa went about checking all of the sources of open flames.

 

* * *

 

 

            While Draco was at St, Mungo’s with the babies, Harry was at the Burrow. Arthur came home from a long day at the Ministry, followed shortly after by Ron.

            “Oh good, Ron, you’re home. I was just trying to find out from Harry here what’s going on. It seems your mum’s not here,” Arthur said.

            “She went with Cissy to take the babies to St. Mungo’s,” Harry said.

            “What happened?” Arthur asked.

            “Draco kicked me out,” Harry answered.

            “No way!” Ron exclaimed.

            “I meant with the babies. Are they alright?” Arthur asked.

            “I don’t know. I assume Draco went there to find out after giving me the boot,” Harry replied.

            “Ron, why don’t you talk to your friend and I’ll go start supper. I don’t suppose your mum has had the time,” Arthur said.

            Ron agreed and Arthur went into the kitchen, leaving Harry and Ron alone. Harry told Ron what Draco had said about leaving the house and ordering Harry to do something to pull himself out of this funk.

            “I can’t believe the slimy git kicked you out like that, mate! What an utter wanker! He’s a tosspot, that one, mate. Don’t worry; you can live here with me. Mum and dad won’t mind,” Ron said.

            “He didn’t kick me out like that; I’m allowed back tonight. And he’s not a wanker or a tosspot. He’s been really good about this and I didn’t even bother finding out what’s wrong with my baby. I’m the wanker,” Harry replied forlornly.

            “I’m sure that this’s somehow his fault, mate. Don’t try to take any of the blame for this; it’s obviously all Draco’s fault,” Ron lied.

            Actually, from what Harry said it sounded like it was at least a good part Harry’s fault. There was no possible reality where Hermione would’ve done any different than Draco if it was her and Ron having the problem; even Ron wasn’t dense even to miss that. But then Ron would never give birth and would never have post-partum depression, so he didn’t have to worry about that. On the other hand, it was Draco who had made Harry get pregnant, so in a way, this really was Draco’s fault. And well Ron hated Draco and was perfectly willing to take advantage of the situation. With any luck, he could finally convince Harry to leave Draco, although with the way things were going, it didn’t sound like Harry would be getting custody of the kids.

            “No, it’s not. It’s my fault. I should care, but it just feels like I’m trapped in a bubble and I can’t see my way through to caring.”

            “Right, er, that didn’t really make much sense mate,” Ron admitted.

            “Nothing I say anymore does.”

            “Hey, I know! Why don’t you come into work with me tomorrow! We just captured Dax Flint; you could sit in on the interview! I’m sure that’d cheer you up,” Ron said. He was hoping that they’d be able to reveal more of the connection between Dax Flint and Draco tomorrow, but today Dax had held pretty firm when he said he hadn’t been at Bellatrix’s funeral and wasn’t on speaking terms with any of the Malfoys. It seemed Dax thought Draco had cost him his wife and three kids and the Malfoys didn’t think very highly of Dax. But, if Ron could just ask Dax the right questions under veritaserum, he was sure he could come up with something to use on Draco to help him convince Harry to dump Draco.

            “That sounds nice. I wish I was catching bad guys again,” Harry admitted.

            “Then do it! Your spot as an Auror is waiting for you. Robards said you’re welcome whenever you show up, training or no training. You still have to go through the training, but he said that for you he’d make an exception and let you in the interrogation room before you’d finished your training. Bloody lucky that, because they just started another training session two months ago, so they won’t be having another for a while yet. And let me tell you, paperwork is bloody awful.”

            “But I’m supposed to be taking a year off for paternity leave. I have two months left.”

            “That’s a benefit, not a requirement, mate. Come back now and you can get paid double for two months or wait until you actually want the time off and use it then. I’ve sat through half a dozen workshops on understanding our rights and benefits, mate, so I know.”

            “Really? I don’t have to take the time off?”

            “Well there are overtime limits. If you’ve worked too much overtime in a month, you really do have to go home. And then there’s a maximum amount of vacation time that you can accrue before you have to take a day off, but that’s something like one vacation day a year and then the rest you can get converted to pay.”

            “Brilliant.” Harry was almost getting excited about this too. He finally started to feel something. Maybe going to work and catching bad guys would be good for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that’s how Harry decided to go back to work so soon after having Lilac. I’m thinking of posting a second outtake; it’d be their delayed second anniversary when Harry is finally feeling better. What do you think?  
> Please Review! And now that this story is finished, please favorite it!


	65. Outtake 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of the depression arc, when the two lovebirds make up and are finally happy again. In between the last chapter and this one Ron realized that being without Draco was hurting Harry. Ron then manned up and encouraged Harry to patch things up with Draco. Draco, of course, accepted Harry back with open arms, asking only that Harry start going to therapy. With both Draco and Ron helping him get better and with work keeping him busy, he began to improve.

             Harry and Draco didn’t end up making it back to Hawaii for their second anniversary. Harry’s mental health was still too fragile and his healer didn’t recommend Harry leaving the country and missing a week’s worth of appointments so soon after starting therapy. Harry was given a potion to smooth his transition off the antidepressant potion and he went to see his mind healer twice a week for two months; after two months, his sessions were reduced down to once a week. It really helped and between the new potion and the therapy sessions, he was feeling better enough on his birthday to finally take that vacation with Draco.

            The Malfoy family went back to Hawaii in the last week of July, which was the last week before Harry was due to start Auror training. He’d been going to work, but as an untrained Auror. He was looking forward to training and to what would come after; being able to go out on assignments with Ron. All of the other Aurors promised it’d be a grueling experience, but with all his experience, he didn’t think it sounded that hard at all. Still it’d be time intensive and after all the drama with his depression, he thought a week of vacation with the family first was a brilliant idea.

            The entire family went and enjoyed the island. They took a helicopter tour of the volcano as a family, letting the babies look out the windows at the glowing red lava. Harry and Draco took a zipline tour of the rainforest together, just the two of them. The adults snorkeled every day and the babies played in the sand on the beach and enjoyed the calm waters of the resort. The boys, even Scorp with his walker, loved running back and forth in the sand as the waves lapped at their feet.

            On Thursday night, Draco and Harry went for a walk holding hands along the shore, watching the waves crash into the black tide pools teeming with black camouflaged life.

            “Happy birthday, Harry,” Draco said. They had had a family dinner with the kids and his parents, complete with cake, ice cream, and singing, but now it was his time to celebrate alone with Harry. Later in their room, he was planning on giving Harry his birthday gift and then buggering Harry senseless. This year, in honor of Harry starting Auror training, Draco had gotten Harry a niffler fur cloak and ramora skinned boots, which Draco thought would be useful for fieldwork or tracking down criminals. Niffler fur was impervious to water and would keep the wearer warm and dry even in the worst conditions. Ramora skin protected the wearer; the ramora skin was purchased through legal means, especially for Harry, which made the boots inordinately expensive.

            “Thanks. I didn’t think it was possible to top my birthday last year, but that kayak river rapids tour we took today was pretty brilliant,” Harry replied. They had taken the babies too, utilizing the life vests Mrs. Lestrange had given them at Teddy’s first birthday party. Each adult had taken a baby and strapped them into a carrier on their chests; Harry had gotten Sev, who was extremely excited throughout the trip, screeching and squealing in delight and desperately reaching towards the edge of the kayak and the turbulent water.

            “It was bloody terrific, but I don’t think it can top the wonderful baby we made last year on your birthday.”

            “Yeah, she’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

            “Absolutely. I think she might be the most beautiful girl in the world,” Draco said.

            “It’s a good thing I’m a boy or I’d be jealous.”

            “You have nothing to be jealous of. You’re the only boy who’s ever caught my eye.”

            “And you’re the prettiest boy I know, Draco.”

            “Handsome; I’m handsome, not pretty.”

            “You’re pretty to me. Your eyes are captivating,” Harry said, looking into Draco’s light grey eyes.

            “The same can be said for those bright green eyes of yours. I think my blond hair really suits them.”

            “Yes, Sev is quite the looker, but then all of our boys are. They’ll grow up and break all of the witches’ hearts.”

            “Or wizards,” Draco replied.

            “Do you think?”

            “No, but I wouldn’t care either way. As long as they’re happy.”

            “Yeah, I just want happy children.”

            Instead of replying, Draco shrieked and jumped in surprise, before running over to a lava rock and saying, “I saw a crab! It was jet black and scurrying along this rock.”

            Harry followed Draco over to the rock and asked, “Where? I don’t see it.” He remembered that black crab that had crawled on him in the room of requirement and thought that maybe this was the same kind.

            “Oi! There, it’s right there! Do you see it?”

            The crab was tucked into a crevice in the rock and when one of its many legs moved, Harry answered, “Yeah, I see it!”

            They looked at the crab for a minute and when Harry looked up, Draco leaned in for a kiss, pulling Harry’s body against his, pinning himself against the large lava rock. Harry kissed back and slipped his tongue into Draco’s mouth. They snogged like that in the lava tide pool until they were out of breath.

            “Do you think we’ll be okay? I mean, really okay? Like in the story books happy or is this just the lull before the next storm?”

            “I do. Don’t you? You’ve been doing so much better these last two months.”

            “Yeah, but it’s just that for me, every time something goes good, there’s always something bad around the corner; a Death Eater, or Voldemort, or a dementor, or depression.”

            “The Dark Lord is gone and never coming back. The only Death Eaters you need to worry about are me and my father. The Ministry is dealing with the dementors; you’d know better than I would about that. And your depression is almost completely gone. You’re happier than I’ve ever seen you and you’re gonna stay that way. And if you don’t, I’ll make you quit the Aurors and find a job that makes you happy. Everything is going to be alright for us from now on.”

            The Death Eaters and Greyback’s werewolves had been the Ministry’s first priority after the war, with the giants and dementors taking a backseat. But now that the first two were all but eliminated, the Auror department was increasingly spending more and more time on the dementor problem. The dementors weren’t being allowed back to guard Azkaban and Kingsley Shacklebolt had finally decided that the best plan of action was to round up the dementors and destroy them. So far the Aurors hadn’t yet figured out how to capture and subdue an entire population of dark creatures, but they were working on it.

            “Oh I’m sure I’ve got loads to worry about with you. You’ll make it very difficult for me to bring you in. You’re a very slippery Death Eater,” Harry replied.

            “The slipperiest; slipped right through the Dark Lord’s grasp.

            “And into mine.”

            “Yes, well it was more enjoyable with you.”

            “Do you still think that? Even after all I’ve put you through this year?”

            “Yes, I do. I love you, Harry,” Draco said, leaning in for another kiss.

            “I love you too, Draco; always,” Harry promised, kissing Draco in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after; mostly. Between Peverell’s Children and Peverell’s Children II, it’s taken over a year to write this. I’m glad it’s finally over and I think I’m going to shy away from writing such long stories from now on…or for a while at least. Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story so long!

**Author's Note:**

> Please Review!


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